INSTRUCTIVE 

AND 

CURIOUS EPISTLES, 

FROM 

CATHOLIC CLERGYMEN 

OF THE 

gotietg of Mc&m, 

IN 

CHINA, INDIA, PERSIA, THE LEVANT, AND EITHER AMERICA ; 

BEING 

SELECTIONS OF THE MOST INTERESTING 
OF THE 

" LETTRES EDIFI ANTES." 

WITH AN APPENDIX, 

SLIGHTLY ILLUSTRATING THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE 
COUNTRIES DESCRIBED. 



TRANSLATED \>° 

BY THE 

REV. THOMAS AUGUSTUS POWER, 



" Qua? regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ?" — Virgil. 
" Mere reading is the best education that any one ever received."— The 
Mahquis of Normanby. 



DUBLIN: 

T. O' GORMAN, 35, UPPER ORMOND-QUAY. 

1839, 



DUBLIN : 

PlilNTED BY V^ILLIAM WAKREN, 140, CAPEL-STEEE !. 



33/6 



TO THE 

VERY REV. DR. MEYLER V. G. 

ETC. ETC. 

THE FRIEND OF MEN OF LETTERS ; 
AS A 

TOKEN OF PROFOUND AND AFFECTIONATE 
RESPECT, 

THIS VERSION IS INSCRIBED 

BY HIS DEVOTED SERVANT, 

THE TRANSLATOR. 



THE 

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



Presenting such varied scenes — the gorgeous 
splendor of the East — the naked and natural sub- 
limity of the West — the crowded capitals of China, 
and the wigwam on the wild Savannah ; — those 
invaluable volumes, the " Lettres Edifiantes," 
have equal, and, I imagine, irresistible attractions 
for the Christian, the merchant, and the man of 
letters. They present one of the most illustrious 
chapters in the history of the Church, and form 
one of the most glorious monuments of the Society 
of St. Ignatius. Upon the Continent their name 
is eulogy — without them no library is perfect — no 
reading extensive. The accomplished, erudite, 
and polished Jesuit will be always found alike 
instructive, edifying, and interesting, as well in 
the hovel of the savage, as beneath the splendid 
domes of Oriental majesty — in the cabin of the 
Red man, as in the Palaces of Pekin, and beside 
the " thrones of Xnd." Mingled with the sybarites 
of European courts in elegance — in exquisite 
delicacy, as well in moral as in physical refine* 

a 3 



vi 



PREFACE. 



ment, they were not to be distinguished from the 
most polished courtiers : they were the very men 
who rivalled the penitents of India in their fright- 
fullest austerities ; they were the very men, who 
were worthy to carry the gonfalon of the cross to 
the remotest, the most distant limits of this created 
universe. 

Their intimacy with savage life exceeded that of 
all other travellers. Having had the very highest 
education — for they themselves, reader, need I tell 
you, were the mightiest masters of the science — 
having had the very highest education, those bright 
intelligences, enriched with all the Greek and all 
the Roman gave — men to whom nothing was un- 
known, those gifted, elegant, and cultivated spirits, 
have spent 40 years among the savages. Oh, what 
a sacrifice was that ! they who might have shone 
in the courts of European kings, and eclipsed the 
lustre of the brightest, they have been content to 
accompany the red man in his dismal expeditions 
in pursuit of game ; they have been content to 
light the calumet of ever-during peace in the 
councils of the savage red skin ! Yes, their vir- 
tues were sufficient to win her from the skies, her 
habitual refuge from the violence of man, and per- 
suade her to inhabit in the wigwam of savages! 

Historians of earth have not hailed them in their 
annals; they have taken little trouble to emblazon 
their endeavours ; but have they not been written 



PREFACE, 



vii 



by the angels of heaven, and of human nature, 
with pencils of steel, and on tablets of adamant to 
outlast the world ? 

Yes, a thousand, and a thousand times, human 
nature, suffering and degraded in the red man's 
cabin, has cried to heaven, in a voice louder and 
more penetrating than the roaring cataracts, for 
blessings on the heads of tbose friends of human 
nature ; and though blood-stained monarchs and 
their marshalled myrmidons, never heard the cry, 
it produced more joy in heaven, than evening 
trumpets sounding over fields of bloody victory; 
and all who sympathise with man, wherever he 
is miserable — all who groan beneath the European 
burden of commercial tyranny, and all who feel 
for them, doubtless find its echo in their heart- 
strings. They whom they would have deified in 
ancient Athens, whose statues they would have 
placed amongst their gods, amongst the most ele- 
gant creations of the Grecian chisel, and in their 
loveliest fanes, have been only hunted by the howl 
of anti-Christian bigotry in our times. They who 
went forth into the forests, exhibiting the wisdom 
of primeval sages, to found those felicitous repub- 
lics, which, embosomed by the aged oaks coeval 
with mankind, which swayed by true philosophers, 
bloomed on the savannah, have only proved in all 
its bitterness, " the base ingratitude of low man- 
kind. " Summon your philosophers of modern 



viii 



PREFACE. 



times! have they done anything compared to this? 
True, they assisted in destroying states— did they 
ever found one ? When did they assemble the 
children of the desert, and call them, like the 
visionary bones in the valley of the prophet, to 
life, and make them a community ? With the 
" delusive Locke," they have speculated truly on 
imaginary happiness, and aided in the birth of 
real evil, but can they boast of any thing compared 
to this ? 

They did not meet them in the prison-ships of 
Turkey, nor in the Bagnio of the Grand Signior : 
when the spirit of the pestilence breathed his 
samiel breath upon those dens of misery, and the 
serene children of Ignatius encountered the pest 
with calm imperturbability, like those gigantic 
oaks that groan amid the storm, but defy its 
violence, when roaring and horrent forests are 
strewn upon the earth by the whirlwind around 
them. 

ct Talk they of morals, oh thou bleeding love, 
The true morality is love of thee." 

But why should I traverse the remoter regions 
of the world, when I have a precedent at home. 
The Catholics of Ireland still remember Beattie ; 
he who came to give testimony of the light — who 
was fit for the apostleship of the universe, and 



PREFACE* 



ix 



who shone over the desert of those melancholy 
times, like the pillar of celestial fire over the 
refugees of Misraim. Oh ! hearts that have bled 
so frequently as ours, have suffered too much to 
forget him ; — suffice it to say, that the Jesuits 
were such as he. 

As Ossian stood in the presence of Patricius, 
that monarch, mid a thousand bards, the compa- 
nions of whose youth were all departed, the 
mighty men who learned from his lyre to give 
themselves to glory, and the colossal bard ex- 
claimed such as I, were the gigantic Feni so 
We saw the last of those evangelic giants, "full 
of grace and truth, and he dwelt amongst us." 

They had faults, it is frequently alleged ; their 
solitary fault was their love of our religion. 
Loving her too well, labouring too well, serving 
her too well, " the head and front of their offend- 
ing hath this extent — no more." Hear the founder 
of the Presbyterian Church, the murderer of 
Servetus, Calvin the sodomite ! 

"As to the Jesuits, they are our greatest 

adversaries: we must put them to death, or, if 

that cannot be done, we must expel them : at 

least we must overwhelm them with lies and 
calumnies" Jesuitae vero, qui se maxime oppo- 

nunt nobis aut necandi aut si hoc commode fieri 

non potest ejiciendi aut certe mendaciis et calum- 

niis opprimendi. — " Mode of propagating Calvin- 



X 



PREFACE. 



ism" — De modo propagandi Calvinismum, apud 
Becurv Aphor 15. 

" II n y a rien de plus essential," writes a Cal- 
vinist of some celebrity in France ; " que de ruiner 
le credit des Jesuites. En les ruinant on ruine 
Rome, et si Rome est perdue la Religion se 
reformera d'elle-meme r — " Nothing is so impor- 
tant as the destruction of the Jesuits ; by destroy- 
ing them we destroy Rome, and when Rome falls 
the Reformation must go on of itself." — (His- 
toire du Cone, de Trente par Pierre Francois 
Courrayer, Amsterdam edition, 1751, page 53.) 
Courrayer forgot the celebrated dictum, When 
Rome falls, the world will fall!* "It is cer- 
tain," exclaims Bayle, in the article Loyola, 
" that all that is said against the Jesuits is believed 
with equal certainty by all their enemies, as well 
Catholics as Protestants ; yet, whoever examines 
with impartiality the innumerable apologies which 
the Jesuits have published, will find a justification 
sufficient to induce an enemy to withdraw the 
accusation." 

We will see, in every page of the Lettres Edi- 
fiantes, the rich, the cultivated, the accomplished 
mind glowing with every variety of literature, 
like some fecund field which is perfectly " in 
heart" — like some golden mine which is peren- 
nially " crumbling away from its own intrinsic 
richness." 

* See Childe Harold. 



PREFACE. 



XI 



Whatever faults may be discerned in the fol- 
lowing production, credit me, reader, they are all 
mine ; such faults are many. Few can be so 
conscious of those faults as I; but from an un- 
practised pen, tis promise, not perfection, which 
the judicious will anticipate. 

"He who expects a faultless piece to see," 
expects what never was, nor is, nor shall be ; 
besides, the mighty truth should ever be remem- 
bered, " Nature's great masterpiece is writing 
well." Nature, in the old age of the world, gave 
us a Napoleon, a Watt, &c. ; see you not that 
'tis easier far to produce such men than to give 
birth to a Thucydides. In sober sadness, the voca- 
tion is so difficult, that I fear me there is less mirth 
than melancholy in the interrogation of the poet — 

" What sins to me unknown, 

Dipp'd me in ink, my parents' or my own ?" 

From an Irish Catholic clergyman — one of the 
" surpliced ruffians" of the Times — some faults 
must be expected. 

It may be useful to state, that I am no disciple 
of Loyola ; would that I were worthy to loose 
the latchets of his shoes, let alone to be his son ! 
The very narrow compass of my reading limits 
all my knowledge of the Jesuits. I believe I may 
safely aver, that, with a single exception, as my 
sight is not the best, I never saw a live Jesuit. 



INSTRUCTIVE 

AND 

CURIOUS EPISTLES. 



A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OE STATE THE COUNT OF 
PONTCHARTRAIN, UPON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF 
THE MISSIONS IN GREECE. 

My Lord, 

Constantinople is a universe containing 
an immensity of Christians. They reckon at least two 
hundred thousand Greeks, and the Armenians perhaps 
are eighty thousand, amongst the permanent inhabitants, 
omitting those that come and go, whom commerce and 
the court circulate. The plague affords a striking proof 
how populous this city is. I have seen, myself, two 
hundred thousand people mown down by the mortality. 
The dead that passed the portals to be inhumed outside 
the city, gave us the means to make this calculation. 
And yet the streets were as full of living people a few 
weeks subsequently, as if nobody had died. 

Many families that inhabited the town in the time of 
the Genoese, are still at Pera and Galatea ; they amount 



THE SLAVES. 



to about four hundred persons ; they are the ambas- 
sadors' interpreters ; while some are doctors, a profession 
from which they derive consideration, and free admis- 
sion to the Turkish lords, without even excepting the 
seraglio. 

The retinue and households of the several ambassadors 
and the merchants of their nations, in all almost three 
thousand persons, are the most distinguished of the Chris- 
tian Franks. The crowd is increased by the Christian 
vessels, and the streets near the shore are often to be seen 
thronged with their newly-landed. 

The Catholic slaves of Constantinople, who are working 
the ships, or chained to the gallies, or imprisoned in the 
bagnio of the Grand Seignior, are 5,000 ; there are 
20,000 others in possession of his subjects. A native of 
Ragusa, M. R. Galani, a Dominican, and titular arch- 
bishop of Ancyra, a gentleman of great regularity or* life, 
and who is strictly attentive to his duties, is ecclesiastical 
superior to all these Catholics. The situation of our 
house is such, that we can easily assist this population. 
At the centre of Galatea, near the sea, in the thorough- 
fare of all that come from the bottom of the harbour, 
appears the finest church in Turkey. The pillars that 
support, the balustrade that terminates the vestibule, and 
hems the staircase that conducts to it, these are all of snow- 
white marble. It possesses the prerogative of mosques, 
a cupola, and a covering of lead. The nave is decorated 
by sepulchral monuments of ambassadors of France and 
of Princess Tekeli ; you will find her mother's mausoleaum 
in a separate chapel. This pious and courageous princess 
died at Nicomedia. To render her the services which 
for several years she had received at Constantinople, the 



THE PROCESSION. 



8 



Jesuits considered it a duty to visit Nicomedia as long as 
she resided there. A mission had commenced at Nico- 
media, which, impracticable without a plausible pretext, 
such as a visit to this princess, expired when the lady 
died. 

Divine service and the sacraments, preaching, confe- 
rences, and catechism, could never be performed in 
Christian cities with greater freedom. The sermons are 
delivered in Turkish and Italian, in Greek and French . 
Men and women of the several rites, Armenian, Greek, 
and Frank, assist successively : the men are in the body 
of the chapel, and, in the Oriental manner, the women 
have a place apart, hemmed in by lattices. Though 
established for infants only, the Greek and Turkish 
catechism is of use to the old, who are always present. 

Our Superior, Father Portier, a truly apostolic man, 
established, for every Monday, two Turkish lectures ; a 
morning one for Armenian maids, who, in their parents' 
houses, pass their lives in piety, wholly consecrated to our 
Saviour ; the other in the afternoon for many young 
Armenian deacons, who arm against error in this confe- 
rence, and to whom the principal points of the Catholic 
religion, and of a priest's professional duties, are exhi- 
bited, and who will be themselves, one day, excellent 
missionaries when they have been made vertabiets, or 
clergymen. On Sundays, merchants congregate and 
compose a confraternity, which is dedicated to the holy 
sacrament, in which great good is done. The Latins of 
Pera have a society of St. Anne, which has subsisted 
since the Genoese ; they perform pious exercises in a 
chapel of our church. They make a general procession 



4 



OBSEQUIES. 



in the open street* on holy Saturday evening 1 , in which 
they bear the relic of the holy thorn, when all Galatea 
and Pera are present. On Easter Sunday, the succeed- 
ing day, with the ^elevated cross and chanting hymns, 
their procession proceeds through the principal streets of 
Galatea. They have had this permission from the ear- 
liest period. Such Turks as they encounter are the first 
to pause and testify respect. — With the express permis- 
sion of his majesty's ambassador, the Germans celebrate 
their ceremonies at our church, having no church of their 
own. The count Caprara, one of their ambassadors, is 
buried there, and there they performed the funeral solem- 
nities of their two last emperors, in the presence of two 
hundred thousand persons. Such obsequies are termed 
by the Greeks katarthion, while the Armenians call them 
kavavaii) meaning purgatory. The mourning, the masses, 
the perpetual prayers, abundant alms and funeral orations, 
and all we practice for the peace of the departed and the 
memory of princes, produced an extraordinary effect on 
them, and many were converted by these public proofs of 
our belief in purgatory. Though there are numbers of 
the nation in Pera and Galatea, all the noble and distin- 
guished Greeks reside in the imperial city, or beyond the 
port in Constantinople, but the most distinguished dwell 
in the district called the Phanal, or Patriarchate. Some 
of these have issued from the ancient emperors, and others 
are allied to the Beys of Moldavia and Wallachia. The 
Scarlati, to whom that Alexander appertained tvho was 
known by the name of Mauro Cordato, by whom the 

* Had they done so in Dublin at the period, they should be dra- 
gooned. The Turks, it appears, were more tolerant than Irish 
Protestants. 



THE PATRIARCH. 



5 



lustre of its original brightness was bestowed on it, is the 
most distinguished at the present day. Cordato left two 
sons, of whom one is imperial drogueman, and the other 
Bey of Moldavia. We are well received of all these 
gentlemen. The last was taught the Latin tongue by 
Father James Piperi, and now requests a Jesuit to teach 
it to his son. We are also on excellent terms with the 
patriarch of the Greeks ; we pay him frequent visits ; he 
is very kind to us ; he speaks his mind upon religious 
subjects, and, without quitting the limits of respect, we 
tell him what we think. 

I had conceived some magnificent ideas of the majesty 
of this patriarch, but on my first visit I was quite sur- 
prised at seeing him served with the last simplicity. His 
chamber is poor and naked ; his establishment consists of 
two valets and a few clerks. He pays visits upon foot, 
and in dress he no way differs from religious Greeks. 
He is surrounded by a few prelates, as simple as himself 
in their habiliments, which alone renders him remarkable. 
He is generally preceded by a priest or deacon, with a 
crutch or wooden cross ornamented with ivory and 
mother of pearl. I have seen him still more simply 
attended, with a suite of two or three persons ; never- 
theless, the title of Universal Patriarch is taken by this 
prelate without ceremony ; he must not be called Most 
Holy Father, but Holy Panosiotatos. When the Greeks 
speak of their other prelates, they do not say as we do, 
bishop or archbishop, but the Saint of such a city, as the 
Saint of Heraclea, &c. . 

The good understanding that we keep up carefully 
with the patriarch and prelates of the Greeks, gives the 
people a tendency to hear us. The children are sent with 



6 



PATRIOTISM. 



willingness to our schools and catechistical instructions, 
A Bey of Wallachia has sent his sons to us. I know a 
number of Greeks in Constantinople, whose dispositions 
are the best, but it is not in this city, speaking generally, 
that vast conversions can be hoped for. 

Melancholy, humiliating, prostrate though it be, the 
sight of their ruined grandeur inflames the spirits of these 
fallen people with patriotic feelings of a lofty nature, 
which you must perforce commiserate and sympathise 
with. You would easily suppose that the city was still 
their own. Though they do not understand their Holy 
Fathers, and diurnally depart even farther from their 
doctrine, or give it the most pitiable explications, they 
will not admit that they are better understood by the 
Westerns, nor that the latter come from the ends of the 
earth to indicate the real meaning. I have often been 
told by a virtuous Greek, the most intellectual amongst 
them, with a naivete I never shall forget, that in order to 
conversion, the Greeks required poverty and humiliation. 
" Heaven who knows us well, and wished to save us," he 
continued, " hath made us quaff the ' cup of trembling 9 
for 300 years. Our wealth and splendour in the ancient 
times had ruined us. I am very much afraid lest a cer- 
tain vapour in the head that still remains to us, complete 
not our destruction." 

The Armenians are not in a safer way, nor better 
doctors than the Greeks, but are much more docile, and 
have more anxiety for information. It is not sufficient, 
as in France, to speak of religion for an hour. After two 
or three hours of continual attention, they are ready to 
listen for as long again, and invariably complain that we 
are too compendious. Thirty or forty of their families 



THE JESUIT. 



who are famous for their rank, exhibit a degree of fervour 
worthy of the early ages of Christianity. 

The parents, the children, and even the domestics 
respire nothing hut charity and zeal for God's service. 
The heads of some of these families, who, for the faith> 
have lost their property, deem it an insult if you pity 
them. What do you talk of, J;hey exclaim; is not our 
Saviour's word explicit — he who shall lose his life and all 
for Jesus Christ, shall find them in the Lord. Nothing 
can be possibly more edifying than to see these virtuous 
men, surrounded by their children, married and not 
married, approaching the altar every eight days, and after 
them their spouses, in the middle of their daughter's. 
They perform this devotion with such modesty and fer- 
vour, that your soul cannot fail to be affected by it. 

Were we not obliged to portion out our time amongst 
other indispensable employments, the seven days of the 
week would hardly be sufficient to content the avid piety 
of ^ these good people. He who has received the rarest 
talent for the salvation of Armenian souls, is Father 
Iacques Cachod, of Fribourg, in Switzerland. Before 
his dedication to the missions of the Levant, and during 
the recent war, he was for many years a missioner at 
Fribourg, in Brisgau. Numbers of our officers who still 
survive did him the honour of their confidence, and in his 
hands it was that the celebrated M. du Fai desired to 
die. This father, in a single year, convinced 400 schis- 
matics, and heard the confessions of 3000 persons, and 
there have been twice as many schismatics converted in 
the year just passed. His maxim is seldom to appear, 
and constantly to act. He has several zealous and saga- 
cious catholics constantly at hand, who spread themselves 



8 



A MARTYR. 



on every side, and who conduct persons, who are inclined 
to conversion, in silence to the priest. Several priests 
and orthodox vertabiets exceedingly contribute to main- 
tain the faith. These are the overseers of their nation, 
ever ready to run where their services are necessary. 
Since justice was inflicted by the Grand Seignior on the 
sanguinary Ali Pacha, whose death was regarded by the 
Turks themselves as a necessary penalty of his persecuting 
the Armenians, the tranquillity of the catholics in this 
quarter has seldom been interrupted. The blood of the 
Armenian Dergoumidas* seems to have extinguished the 
fire of persecution. There are only now and then some 
transient efforts by the heretics which solely serve to 
purify the virtue of the faithful. 

If all Constantinople may be credited, the graces 
received by the intercession of Dergoumidas every day 
make his memory rise in the veneration of the people* 
The spirit of faith which seems to have assumed new 
vigour in the breasts of the Armenians, despite the bloody 
persecution they have recently endured, is most commonly 
attributed to his mediation. Far from annihilating our 
religion, as the Mahometans anticipated, the violent tem- 
pest by which it has been visited hath caused it only to 
send forth new shoots and fructify more generously. 

The Catholics of Constantinople have increased by one 
half ; their number is about 12,000. They increase in 
other cities in a like proportion. Messire Melchou, a 
pupil of the Propaganda, bishop of Mar din in the Diarbek, 
a very virtuous and learned prelate, has almost made his 

* This holy priest was condemned to death by the Vizer Ali Pacha 
the 5th November, 1707. 



SLAVES. 



9 



diocese entirely catholic. It has occasioned him, it is true, 
penalties and perils without number ; but he triumphed 
over these, and succeeded in the end. Last year he had 
the courage, in order to consolidate his edifice, to repair 
to Constantinople to ask the Vizier for a firman which 
should protect his people and his person from the perse* 
cutions of the Pacha of Mardin. Not finding any one 
who was willing to risk his safety by the pleading of so 
delicate a cause, he proceeded to the full divan to state 
his case himself, and such efficacy was given to his 
eloquence, that it was publicly decided by the Grand 
Vizier, that the Pacha of Mardin had ceasod to reign, and 
that he should be put in prison till his peculations were 
refunded. 

Our missioners are much employed in attending to the 
slaves in the bagnio of the Grand Seignior at Constanti- 
nople. Its name is derived from the Italian of a bath, and 
it really contains one. Girt with strong and lofty walls, 
the bagnio is a vast enclosure, which has but a solitary 
entrance, for ever furnished with an armed guard. Ima- 
gine in the middle of this vast enciente, two great square 
buildings, one less than the other, of which the great is 
called the larger and the little is the smaller bath. The 
light comes in through iron bars of no small thickness, 
which compose the windows, and are at a great elevation 
from the ground. The Christians taken by the Turks 
in war or in ships at sea are incarcerated here. The 
officers have little cells where two or three reside 
together ; the commoner prisoners sleep uncovered on a 
wooden guard bed which skirts the walls, where each has 
only space sufficient for his body. They have contrived 

a double chapel in a portion of the bath, one for the 

b 5 



10 



SLAVES. 



slaves of tlie ritual of Rome, the other for the Greek 
rite. Each of these chapels has its altar and its poor and 
scanty ornaments apart. They had some good bells at 
one time, but six years since they were taken from them 
by the Turks, as the angels had their slumbers broken 
by these bells, they said, who, alighting nightly on the 
summit of a neighbouring mosque, sought repose upon 
the cupola. 

A little church dedicated to St. Anthony, sufficiently 
well supplied with altar furniture, and which even has 
some plate, has been built by the donations of the faith- 
ful, very near the smaller bath. This is the church of 
the ailing and the officers. Annually, a prefect of the 
bagnio is elected by the slaves, and a sacristan under- 
neath him, to whom all the articles are reckoned out, to 
be transmitted in the same condition to the persons who 
shall succeed them. Chains are attached to the person 
of the slaves even in the bagnio— chains that never are 
removed. Early in the morning, they are led along the 
streets to the arsenal or public works, chained together 
two and two in troops of thirty or forty, and this on 
every day in the year, the four solemn festivals excepted. 
For all his nutriment, each slave has two black loaves 
a-day, the quality of which is bad. The Turks bring 
their slaves back at sunset, but those who have satisfied 
their overseers are separated from each other, and go 
one by one. Those that they desire to punish are left 
enchained, which occurs before they quit the works ; 
then a cry is raised to return to the bath. They no 
sooner return and are reckoned, than the keepers secure 
them with a double lock, till the succeeding morning. 
When they are sick, they cannot be removed from the 



SLAVES. 



11 



bagnio ; they remain in the prison with their gyves upon 
them, which are only taken off when they are corpses. 
However, Turkish cruelty is not limited by death. Before 
they are carried to the public cemetery, the corpses are 
arrested at the great portal ; there they lie extended, 
side by side, while they are pierced repeatedly from belly 
to belly with long iron spits, in order to be certain that 
existence is extinguished. 

The service that we render these unhappy people con- 
sists in assisting them in sickness, procuring them the 
solaces which charity affords them on the part of the 
faithful, keeping up their faith and fear of God, and aiding 
them to die well. If we are necessarily involved in much 
pain and subjugation^ in this labour, consolations on the 
other hand are attached by Heaven to these services. 
Besides our visits in the week, on sabbath days and fes- 
tivals, two jesuits attend them. In the evening they go 
there, and during that night they are imprisoned with 
the slaves. The Father of each bagnio has a little nook 
apart, whither he retires when no sick are to be visited. 
Imagine all those victims in their gyves, and the father 
watching over them. When this multitude of sufferers 
have taken some repose, and have ate their little bread, 
the signal is giv r en for the prayer. We begin by blessing 
water and by a general aspersion. The prayer is then 
repeated in a lofty voice : the five points of the examen 
and the act of contrition are reiterated by the people and 
the priest. Next he makes an exhortation on some 
touching subject which is closely connected with their 
present disposition, and this for the space of half an hour. 
Then he spends some hours in the confessional, and unless 
he have to watch some dying man, having finished the 



12 



THE SLAVES. 



confessions he reposes for a moment. At five o 'clock in 
winter, and at three o'clock in summer, all the inmates of 
the prison are awaked for mass, at which the priest 
explains the gospel. The mass concluded when the com- 
municants return thanks, he takes his stand beside the 
chapel door, and distributes alms to every one that passes. 
Then the gates are opened with a great explosion, and 
every slave makes haste to place himself beside a fellow, 
in order to get chained to him, and, Sunday though it be, 
they thus proceed to labour. 

When the pestilence prevails, as the priest must be 
always at the elbow of the sick, and the number of the 
missioners is never more than five, the portal is passed 
by a solitary jesuit, who seldom repasses it alive ; but who 
devotes himself entirely to the service of the sick, and 
remains in the bagnio while the pestilence prevails. When 
this priest has obtained the superior's permission ; being 
prepared by a previous retreat he bids a final farewell to 
his brothers, as if he were about to die ; — sometimes he 
escapes the danger. The last Jesuit who died in this 
exercise of charity, was Father Vandermans, a Belgian 
by nation. The pest was very violent at that time. 
The multitude of sick he assisted infected him in less 
than fifteen days. He apprised his superior immediately, 
asking as a favour the permission to expire near his 
brothers. There is a little habitation situated at the 
extremity of our garden, whither we transported him, 
and having confessed himself anew, as well as taken the 
viaticum, replenished with a sweet and quiet joy, he died 
full of gratitude to God for the signal favour thus 
bestowed on him. No one has been stricken by this 
mortal malady since, save Father Peter Besnier, whose 



THE PLAGUE, 



13 



fine and brilliant genius made him so well known. 
Towards the termination of his days, he consecrated his 
existence for the second time to the mission of Constan- 
tinople, to which he had already rendered services the 
most essential. He was hearing the confession of a 
patient when he became the victim of the plague. The 
other priests of this mission were preserved by Provi- 
dence ; for it was only when the father had expired that 
the signs of the pestilence appeared, and during the con- 
tinuance of his illness they had been perpetually with 
him. 

But if any one should die of this disease, it is Father 
Iacques Cachod, of whom I have already spoken ; who 
is known by the name of the father of the slaves, he has 
been employed for the last ten years in all such works of 
mercy as are imminently perilous ; sometimes in the 
bagnio and sometimes in the gallies of the Grand Seignior. 
As they have an understanding with their keepers, the 
slaves, who never can go out, contrive to get him in. I 
received the following letter from this father ; I was at 
Scio when he wrote ; 'twas a season when the scourge 
was so appalling, that a third of the citizens were stricken 
dead in Constantinople. 

Now a day I am placed superior to the terror which 
contagious maladies inspire, and after the dangers I have 
run with the help of heaven, I shall never die of dis- 
eases of these kinds, I've emerged this moment from 
the bagnio, where I have closed the eyes of eighty per- 
sons, who are all that died in three weeks' time in a place 
so exceedingly decried, while in the city, in the open air, 
thousands perished. I was unvisited by horror in the day 
light ; it was only in the darkness, in the little sleep 



14 



SMYRNA. 



allowed me, that frightful ideas filled my mind. The 
greatest danger which I ever ran or ever shall perhaps, 
was in the hold of a Sultana of two and eighty guns. 
The slaves, in concert with the keepers, had introduced 
me in the evening, to hear confessions in the night, and 
to celebrate the service in the morning. We were all, 
as usual, secured with double padlocks. During that 
tremendous night, I heard the confessions and administered 
communion to two and fifty slaves, of whom twelve were 
sick, and of whom three expired before I left the hold. 
There was no aperture whatever to this crowded dun- 
geon ; so you may suppose that the air was insalubrious. 
Well I know that God will save me from many other 
dangers, since he delivered me from that. 

I fear, my Lord, that I have trespassed on your patience 
with these trifling details. I intended their suppression, 
but they told me that your Lordship loved such minutiae. 
I shall only add, that were there fifteen jesuits instead of 
five, we should find for them more work in Constanti- 
nople than they could perform. 

In Smyrna, there are only four of this society, of whom 
two are more than eighty, and yet Smyrna is a mission 
where the spiritual harvest is of great abundance. Father 
Verzeau, the superior, it is true, does quite as much as 
many missioners. 

In a handsome street, which is half a league in length, 
reside the consuls of England, France, Venice, Holland, 
and Genoa, with the merchants of their several nations ; 
it is called, on that account, the street of the Franks. 
There are 20,000 Greeks in Smyrna, while the Arme- 
nians may amount to 7,000. The former are not quite 
such impracticable people as in Constantinople. We 



PERSIAN CARAVANS. 



15 



entertain an amicable intercourse with the principal per- 
sons of the city. They bring us their children, that we 
may mould them early to letters and religion. Including 
their clergy, many make confessions to us, and frequent 
our church as freely as the Latins. The Armenians are 
much the same as in Constantinople ; but the tone of 
such as are heretical is more subdued. The Consul of 
France, M. Fontenu, is able to confine them in the limits 
of respect. There are many very regular and fervent 
Catholics among the Armenians, many merchants of 
Persia, amongst others ; especially those from the pro- 
vince of Nakivan, a district which Dominicans have cul- 
tivated for four hundred years : almost all the people of 
the province have embraced the Latin rite. 

At the arrival of the caravans, which are commonly 
very numerous, and which travel three or four times a 
year, the eagerness with which the Catholics approach 
the sacraments is a source of solace and delight. Our 
house and church are sometimes so replete with these 
travellers, that no one else can get admission. At 
Christmas and Easter, the presence of a priest is required 
at Guzzel Hissar, a town built upon the ruins of the old 
Ephesus, as well as at Thyatira, and at other places where 
commerce congregates Armenians. The father never 
fails to make a convert upon these occasions. We shall 
extend these missions to many cities of importance in the 
vicinity of Smyrna, when we shall have more mission- 
aries. Were it possible for one of us to travel with the 
caravans, we should gain many souls to God upon the 
road. 

Smyrna may be considered as being an annexation to 
the missions of the Levant. Those interminable gra*dens 



16 



THE EARTHQUAKE. 



that surround the town are almost exclusively the pro- 
perty of Christians, Greeks, and Latins, from the isles of 
Scio, Naxos, Paros, Santorin, &c, all susceptible of infor- 
mation, and who knew us in their native isles. Poverty 
expatriates a multitude of females, who repair to Smyrna 
from the isles of Greece ; it being an opulent emporium 
where every thing abounds. All the ardour and zeal of 
the missioner, and all his sleepless vigilance, are scarce 
sufficient to restrain this multitude within the limits which 
Christian severity prescribes. 

The town of Smyrna is smitten sometimes with pesti- 
lences, so appalling, and such furious earthquakes, that 
they pale the cheeks of persons the least susceptible of 
fear. Two years ago, the town was emptied of 10,000 
persons, and the maladies they left behind them were as 
dangerous as pest. However, as the Catholics were 
cautious, very few of them were smitten. The only one 
with whom the malady was mortal was Messire Daniel 
Duranti, their bishop. He was a good prelate, and more 
than eighty years of age, and his amiability and virtue 
were such, that he was universally regretted. 

As to the earthquake, you neither can foresee it nor 
secure yourself against it ; it may surprise you in the night 
as well as in the day : It comes so suddenly sometimes, 
that your only resource is to purify your conscience and 
put your trust in God. In the middle of the summer, if 
the sea be very calm, it is said to be a certain forerunner 
of the earthquake ; it has shook the earth however, when 
the sea was greatly agitated, in my own experience ; and 
when it was as smooth as glass for days together, no 
earthquake followed 



THE SEA. 



17 



The total destruction of the town of Smyrna, in 1688, 
Avas occasioned, 'twas imagined, by the mighty masses of 
stone of which the houses were constructed, which having 
no elasticity to suit the series of joltings to which they 
were subjected, the earthquake entirely overturned them. 
In rebuilding the city, they have remedied this incon- 
venience. The first story is of stone to fifteen feet or so, 
but all the superior part is interwoven wood ; they employ 
baked clay in which a little lime is mingled, with which 
to fill the interstices. Earthquakes have since occurred 
that have agitated everything, making the universal city 
dance and shiver with much more furious and violent 
concussions than in 1688. w T hen Smyrna was destroyed. 
The houses have been sadly shaken, but scarcely any of 
them fell. 

The city is situated at the basis of a mountain, which 
confronts the whole breadth of the bay, whose entrance is 
protected by a little fortress at four leagues' distance 
from the town. Creditable persons have informed me, 
that when the town was overturned, the agitation of the 
earth came from the direction of the deep and from under 
the sea, which, as it advanced, it caused to bellow, boil, 
and roar w T ith a loud and horrible noise, and so causing* 
the fortress to fall before the city. On the anniversary 
of this disaster, the memory of which makes the citizens 
of Smyrna tremble, they observe a solemn fast, and expose 
the blessed sacrament. There is invariably a great con- 
gregation at this festival, and numerous communicants 
surround the altars. The superior of this mission at the 
period, Father Francis Lestringant, whom they drew 
from underneath the ruins of his house, apparently a 
corpse, always implores permission, though he is very old, 



18 



THE SLAVES. 



to preach the sermon of this anniversary. No man has 
a better right to know, he says, the nature of the matter 
than himself, and few can be fuller of the subject. 

Our house and church have been rebuilt, and are much 
more spacious and commodious than they were. For 
this we are indebted to the gentlemen of the chamber of 
commerce of Marseilles, to whom the Jesuits owe many 
obligations. The church is very neatly and even elegantly 
kept : Sermons are delivered in four languages on sabbath 
days and festivals. After the last mass, instructions are 
given in the Greek in the court yard of the chapel to the 
poor of the city. After these instructions, the alms are 
distributed amongst them, which the father never fails to 
procure them in the previous week. The father explains 
the Christian doctrine to groups of Grecian girls, who 
assemble with their servants at one o'clock on Sundays. 

We have a fervent fraternity of merchants, moreover? 
known by the name of the conception of our Lady. They 
assemble upon Sundays with an assiduity and devotion 
which edify the city. The prefect and the merchants 
make donatives profusely, for the redemption of the 
slaves and the solace of the poor. 

There is no bagnio for the slaves at Smyrna ; never- 
theless, four gallies spend the winter in the bay. They 
seldom suffer any one to go on board to administer the 
rights of religion to the Christian slaves. It is only by 
the dint of importunity, and sometimes by administering 
a bribe, that these people get permission to repair in 
their shackles to the church, with their drivers behind 
them, who never lose sight of them. But then we visit 
and instruct the sailors who cannot come to land in the 
merchantmen of France and Italy? and teach the cabin- 



THESSALONICA. 



19 



boys their catechism ; persons who have seldom made 
their first communioiij though they are often more than 
fifteen years of age. 

For the renewal of our mission in Thessalonica, one 
of those which we cultivated anciently, we are deeply 
indebted to your Lordship's sedulity in sending jesuits as 
chaplains to the consuls of France, by which an illimitable 
field has been opened to their labours. 

Thessalonica is one of the greatest and most famous 
towns of European Turkey. Like Constantinople, it has 
an Eptapyrgion or seven-towered castle. The Greeks are 
numerous in Thessalonica, and the Armenian merchants 
are many in the city ; yet all these Christians scarcely 
make 10,000 souls, while the Jews are nearly 12,000 in 
number. The last are said to be exceedingly industrious. 
Two several viziers took it in their head, some time since, 
to make these Israelites imitate our cloth manufactures, 
to render Turkey independent, as they said, of other 
countries ; but whatever expences they have gone to, or 
trouble they have taken, they have never been able to 
succeed. During the seven years he has been here, 
Father Braconnier has won golden opinions from the 
Greeks by his amiable manners, and his singular talent in 
convincing them of the folly of their errors in a friendly 
way. The Armenians likewise receive the pious impres- 
sions which he makes upon their minds with astonishing 
plasticity. As the current of their commerce continually 
carries them from country to country, as they are a peo- 
ple perpetually moving, he has the opportunity of suc- 
cessively instructing a considerable number. They make 
use of the chapel of the merchants of France. French 
society is not very numerous at Thessalonica, but it is 



20 ISLES OF GREECE. 

exceedingly select. Mr. Boesmont the consul, is respected 
and beloved. Supported by the credit of the Count des 
Alleurs, ambassador at the porte, his continued represen- 
tations have induced the Grand Seignior to allow a public 
chapel to him and his nation. Of the two missionary 
Jesuits, one constantly remains for the service of the 
ehapel, the other goes at Easter to la Cavalla and Scopoli, 
where there are vice-consuls and several other French- 
men, but no one to administer the sacraments to them. 
Scopoli is a populous and pleasant isle, fifty leagues from 
Thessalonica. It is the principal of many which compose 
an archipelago on the coasts of Macedonia. 

La Cavalla is a Turkish fortress which derives i&s name 
from the figure of a horse, which the rock on which it 
stands is thought to resemble ; it lies 30 leagues by land 
north-eastward of Salonica, but 'twould be 100 by sea, 
the route is so circuitous. Thasso is perceptible from 
La Cavalla, a very handsome island, which is 30 leagues 
in circuit. I suspect it to contain 8,000 souls, which are 
divided into fifteen villages. Missioners are civilly 
received in all these places, which have been visited 
repeatedly by Father Braconnier. He has sojourned for 
a time in the monasteries of Mount Athos,* Negrepont, 
and Lemnos, and in all these places, the fruits of his 
labours have been abundant. Nothing more is necessary 
save zealous and laborious missionaries to make the islands 

* How blest the life of godly eremite, 
Such as on lonely Athos may be seen, 
Watching at eve upon the giant height 
That looks o'er seas so blue, skies so serene, 
That he who there at such an hour hath been 
May wistful linger on the hallow'd spot, 
Then slowly tear him from the witching scene 
Sigh forth one wish that such had been his lot, 
Then turn to hate a world he had almost forgot. 



THE PLAGUE. 



21 



on these beautiful and extensive shores amazingly pro- 
lific. Father M. Piperi, in his turn, has made excursions 
to the Greek inhabitants of Olympus, and to the environs 
of Pelion and Ossa. Between these two mountains, the 
river Peneus flows, which forms, while meandering, the 
vale of Tempe. Wherever he proceeded, the people 
whom the priest discovered were of gentle dispositions ; 
but with reference to religion they were perfect savages. 
Were there more of us in Greece, we should establish a 
mission to Scopoli, where the people of the isle are anxious 
to possess us, and where the generous nature of the 
fruitful soil wins Frenchmen to reside who live and die 
without religious aid. We could, a second time, establish 
that mission at Negrepont, which the war of Venice and 
the frequent pest, and the want of priests, compelled us to 
relinquish till we should meet conjunctures more propi- 
tious. True it is, that the plague successively deprived 
us of six of our society, whose merits might not easily 
be paralleled, and whose memory is still in benediction in 
the country. 

But by attending to the town in winter, in which we 
have a house and chapel, and by visiting the villages in 
summer, in which, while raging in the town, the malady 
is seldom prevalent, the mission might escape destruction. 
There are nearly 200 villages in Negrepont, and its cir- 
cuit is 100 leagues. There is nothing to prevent us from 
passing, when we please, to the main land of Macedonia, 
which is very near the isles where the fields are full of 
Christians, having nobody to tell them of the things of 
God in a proper manner. Larissa alone, though a soli- 
tary canton, would occupy two jesuits during half the 
year. It is next to Thessalonica, the most frequented 



22 



PERSECUTION. 



town in these districts and one to which Christian strangers 
commonly resort. 

The isles of Tkassos, at the other extremity of Mace- 
donia, on the northern side, would likewise be a very pro- 
per station for missions, which could be made with ease 
into the part of the province that approaches Thrace; 
which is equally populous and quite as fine, and where 
Frenchmen are received with more civility than in any 
other part of Turkey. They regard the V enetians as 
people who have recently been reconciled, with whom 
they have peace to-day but war to-morrow ; while the 
French are considered as perpetual friends, who, time out 
of mind, have been only known by traffic, and benefits be- 
stowed upon the country. With your protection, I expect, 
my Lord, and from our missionaries' zeal I presume to 
promise, that this illustrious province, Macedonia, the 
name of which alone awakes in the soul such lofty associ- 
ations, will speedily resume that ancient fervour, at least 
in some measure, which was lighted by the labours of 
St. Paul, and by his epistles to the Thessalonians and 
Philippians. 

Scio is a mission which your Lordship, in like manner, 
gave existence to, in which, but for you, the Catholic 
religion were annihilated. Venice extended her invading 
arm over the territory of this isle in 1691, and then, relin- 
quishing her hold, left it to the mercy of a Turkish army, 
who, on their return, committed the most horrible dis- 
orders. Some malignant Greeks accused the Catholics 
of Scio of having invited the Venetians. The assertion 
was sufficient to rouse the ferocious fury of the Turks. 
All the rabid rancour of their ^animosity was directed, 
like a stream of scalding lava, upon these shrinking and 



PERSECUTION. 



23 



defenceless victims : churches were levelled with the 
ground, made into mosques or given to the Greeks ; their 
dwelling houses gutted, and their most precious property 
divided between the Greeks and Turks, the plunderers, 
Such complete and howling desolation no one ever saw 
before. 

For upwards of a century the jesuits had held a college 
and a church at Scio, from which the public derived no 
inconsiderable advantages. As at the approach of the fleet 
despite reiterated solicitations from Constantinople, and 
the disheartening example of the clerics who precipitately 
fled the island, the Jesuits did not wish to fly, our church 
and dwelling house remained erect, while many others 
were devasted. The Seraskier, or general of the Turkish 
army, Oglo, bestowed praise on these priests for their 
firmness and constancy, and gave them a guard of soldiers 
for their security till the effervescence of invasion had sub- 
sided ; but the Greeks, to deprive the Latin ritual of 
every resource, breathing fiery wishes for its extirpation, 
worked their way so well by means of money? that persons 
approached our house a few days afterwards for the pur- 
pose of setting fire to it. The roof of our church came 
down immediately. AVith one hand the fathers were 
dragged from their chambers by infuriated soldiery who 
wounded them with the other. When the walls were 
naked, the college and the church were presented to a 
Turk who made them a caravanserai, or house of hire. 
A prohibition, under pain of death, of professing the reli- 
gion of the Pope, was published in the city, and the Latins 
were enjoined to pray in the churches of the Greeks. A 
document was dispatched to the Grand Seignior, which 
informed his highness that there were no longer any 



24 



GREEK LADIES. 



Franks at Scio, as coercion had turned them into Greeks. 
Nevertheless, though solicited on all sides, the Jesuits 
could not be induced to quit the island and forsake 5,000 
Catholics, who, in these disastrous times, had no one in 
the world to console them but themselves. As their 
habit was prohibited, they assumed a different apparel, and 
went from house to house administering the sacrament s 
and saying Mass, exhorting the faithful to die a thousand 
deaths rather than permit their faith to be affected. A 
single circumstance will show how firm they were, and 
how resolute to suffer. To cry down the Latin ritual 
for ever, and to diffuse terror through the Franks, the 
schismstics requested and procured, by proffering gold, 
the death of four distinguished Catholics, of whom two 
were of the house of Justiniani. These four nobles, who 
could be reproached with nothing but their creed, and 
were the worthiest characters in Scio, proceeded to the 
scaffold with the utmost cheerfulness, rejecting, with a 
firmness which was altogether Christian, the establish- 
ments which were offered them on condition that they 
would change their creed. The day after their death, 
their ladies conquering their timidity, and summoning 
resolution, proceeded to the Seraskier, with their children 
by the hand. Drowned in sorrow as they were, they 
addressed him in a tone of voice that did not tremble in 
the least : — " Yesterday you caused our Lords to die be- 
cause our spouses were Catholics; do as much at present 
for these innocents and for us, as we too are Catholics, 
and determined never to change our faith." The Seras- 
kier himself was affected by this spectacle : gold embroi- 
dered handkerchiefs were distributed by his orders to 
the ladies, and he said to them, in accents of compassion, 



TRANQUILLITY. 



25 



u Impute not to me the destructions of your husbands, 
but to them/' and he pointed to the Grecian Primates. 

Matters remained in this melancholy state for almost 
a year, when the envoy of the King at Constantinople, 
M. de Castagneres, moved by the sufferings inflicted on 
so many faithful Catholics, and the danger incessantly 
menacing the missionaries who risked destruction in 
assisting them, sent to the Sieur de Ryan, the consul of 
the King at Smyrna, to despatch Ins vice to Scio, to whom 
he should appoint Father Martin, of the society of Jesus, 
as chaplain. 'Twas his object to open an asylum to reli- 
gion by the countenance which a French chapel should 
afford it ; and by the assistance and support which the 
Jesuits should receive from one of their society, over 
whom the Turks had no authority to procure them 
freedom for their ministry. My Lord, you were so good 
as to second this proposal on receiving the request which 
the ambassador presented you, and moreover by letters 
patent of the King, expedited to the Jesuits, it pleased 
you to confirm it. We may venture to assert, that, next 
to providence, 'twas this that saved the catholic religion 
in the isle of Scio ! Such a multitude of people, above 
all the poor, could never have withstood assaults so 
violent for any length of time : some began to stagger, 
half seduced already ; others left the isle, and things 
would have returned to the same condition as in the 
neighbouring isles, where the Latin rite, though para- 
mount at one time, is now extinguished. But thanks to 
your piety, My Lord, and his Majesty's protection, no 
sooner did they see a chapel open under the auspices of 
France, than they ceased to think of any other church. 
The eagerness with which they hurried to hear the word 



26 



TAXATION. 



of God and to receive the sacraments, is quite incredible. 
Besides the public and ordinary prayers for you and for 
the King, particular prayers in private families have been 
instituted, which, for twenty years, have never been 
omitted. 

If the Latins were delighted to see the consul's chapel 
supply the places of their fallen churches, the schismatics 
considered the circumstance with animosity. They saw 
the portal opened for the re-establishment of the ritual 
of Rome, which, as they believed, was dead and buried. 
Incarceration, burdensome taxation, ceaseless citation to 
the presence of the judges, calumnies and accusations, 
nothing was omitted to weary out the patience of the 
miserable Latins, or disgust them with the exercise of 
their religion. They even went to such extremities as 
to solicit urgent orders of the Grand Signior for their 
banishment to Brussus, as dangerous people who could 
not be left in a place so exposed as Scio with security. 
Whether exile was commuted for pecuniary penalties, 
or that these orders were issued in reality, as was then 
the belief, 14,000 crowns were extorted from the Franks, 
excluding the avanies they had paid already. With all 
this cash, they could not purchase peace : snares were 
laid by their malicious adversaries for their " unblest 
feet ;" among which the most insidious was to entrap 
them into an avowal, in a court of justice, that they kept 
up a constant connexion with the pope. You know that 
the Pope is held in abhorrence by the Turks, who deem 
liim more inimical to Mahometanism than all its other 
foes. But his holiness was hated at Scio more heartily 
than any where else ; for his gallies had been seen assist- 
ing and mingling with those of the Venetians, when their 



THE QUESTION. 



27 



armament assaulted the island. Profiting maliciously by 
this contingency, the schismatics hugged the hope of 
overwhelming the Catholics, by compelling them to a 
public juridical confession. With great expense and 
much intriguing, they contrived to cause a general 
assembly of the agas of the isle and of the people of the 
law, who were to congregate before the cadi. The 
leading persons of the Latin families, the Jesuits of Scio, 
the vicar-general, who, with some of his clergy, had 
recently arrived, were all cited to appear. But the egis 
of heaven was extended over innocence, and iniquity was 
overwhelmed with confusion. Distinguished Turks, their 
former friends, informed the Franks in a secret manner, 
that for them it woidd be highly dangerous to talk of the 
pope in this assembly ; that, in a word, his name would 
be the signal for their extirpation. They profited by 
this advice. The cadi could extort no other answer: 
turn them what way he would, and however cunningly 
he questioned them, save that their King was his christian 
majesty, and they repeated perpetually that they repaired 
to his chapel to pray to God ; that their mode of faith 
and pious exercises differed in nothing from the King's, 
and that the chief of their law and the religion they pro- 
fessed were precisely the same as his. These questions 
continued for an hour, during which it was impossible to 
elicit any thing but this. At length a friend of the 
Franks, a commander of a galley, who was laughing in 
his sleeve at their manoeuvering, rising up, exclaimed, 
" I shall always put more trust in those who believe as 
the Franks believe than in fellows who follow the 
faith of the Muscovites designating the Greeks 
thereby, who were obliged to be silent, though stung to 



28 



TOLERATION. 



the inmost core. Their project proved abortive : there 
was no judiciary document drawn up, and having given 
in a hundred crowns, the Latins were discharged. 
Nevertheless, our persecutors were relentless still, and 
for four years and a half their fury raged with unabated 
vehemence. Weekly they discovered some new source 
of terror and vexation, and still during this season of 
suffering, none of those cenobites returned whom the first 
rupture of the storm had dispersed to the four winds. 
Sustaining in their solitary strength so many people, and 
such difficult contingencies, like the " oak laden with 
stormy blasts," no one can do justice to the sorrows and 
fatigues of Father Martin and his brother Jesuits. It 
caused the death of two of them. viz. Fathers Ignatius 
Albertin and Francis Ottaviani. The voice of God at 
length rebuked the winds, and there came a great calm : 
things were re-established on their ancient footing, and 
one by one the friars alighted upon the shores. They 
were all received by Father Martin with the utmost joy 
and gratulation in the chapel, as in the common church 
of the Roman Catholics. Ever since that happy day, 
nine or ten masses have been said diurnally, as well high 
as low, accompanied by an uninterrupted course of con- 
fessions and communions. 

The divine office and diurnal preachings, congregations 
of the confraternity of the Virgin Mary, composed of 
upwards of 500 persons, the forty hours, and the exposi- 
tion of the blessed sacrament : under the sanction of the 
Sovereign's name, are all performed with an ardour and 
a concourse which serve to revive the radiant recollec- 
tion of those palmy days when our Catholic religion was 
in flower ff 



FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 



29 



To supply, to the best of our abilities, the breaches in 
our college ranks, the fathers Stanislaus d'Andria and 
Antonio Grimaldi, have individually opened two well- 
attended classes, and the sons of the most inimical Greeks 
are as sedulously sent thither as are those of the Latins. 
The perseverance of the priests to mould their pupil's 
minds, is quite as much undiminished as before they had 
suffered such inhuman persecution at the hands of their 
parental relatives. The public are probably much edified 
at this, and haply look upon it with as much admiration 
as at any of their former toils. Although experience 
should have taught them how unrelaxing the tenacity of 
the attachment with which Roman Catholics adhere to 
their religion, and though the delusion was no longer 
tenable of shaking the persecuted people in their creed, 
their tormentors were untiringly and diligently busy in 
disturbing them, as well as in imagining all manner of 
means that might coerce them to relinquish their religion. 
Their darling object was to melt their substance, as it 
were, upon a slow fire, to reduce them to ruin by con- 
tinual expenses caused the Catholics upon all occasions. 
A new pacha or a new cadi never yet arrived at Scio, 
without levying an avany on the Latins, now under one 
pretext and now under another. The most ordinary 
pretext is afforded by religion. On the arrival of those 
officers, preparations are immediately made by the 
Catholics to pass some time in prison and in irons. Two 
years ago, the persecution was pushed farther. Four 
chiefs of the first families, and with them Father Stanis- 
laus of Andria, laden with gyves, were flung into a galley 
which carried them to Rhodes. ? Twas after an agony of 
four months, and a fine of a hundred crowns, that the 



30 



SlPFEREHS ketttkw. 



sufferers were permitted to return, When these good 
Catholics arrived, I was in the isle of Scio, and I saw 
them, on their landing, pale, meagre, and attenuated, 
when their object was not to see their families, but to 
hasten to the church, and on their knees to thank the 
benignant deity, with their foreheads on the floor, for 
his mercy in having deemed them worthy of suffering 
a little for the glory of his name. The Latins of Scio 
have made many applications to the Porte, requesting a 
judicial trial, and imploring to be punished should they 
be found guilty, or their innocence declared if nothing 
could be proven. Ali Pacha, the fiercest of the late 
Viziers, to whom they had the courage to address them- 
selves, sent them away with gentle words, such as scarce 
might be expected from a man so rude. Two years sub- 
sequently they received some services from Numan Kap- 
rogli, but so short was the vizierate of this Pacha, he 
could not carry out his purposes. 

It is a prevalent impression, that religion will never be 
established at Scio, with solidity, unless by the intermis- 
sion and authority of France; and if any Latins of the 
Levant deserve this intervention, it is assuredly those of 
Scio, as well by their sincere attachment to the nation, 
as by their inclinations, which are altogether French. 
Their number is perennially augmenting in spite of per- 
secutions. It amounts to something more than 7,000 
souls at present, Like the captive Jews, they seem to 
be passed over by the pestilence, which scourges Scio as 
often as the other provinces of Turkey. Every year it 
only deprives them of a few, while the Greeks and Turks 
are slain by hundreds. Earthquakes commonly occur at 
Scio. Our chapel is a wide and lofty hall ; three solid 



KTEAL GREEKS. 



31 



vaults, side by side, which buttress one another, sustain 
it. During the celebration of our sacred mysteries, I 
have often seen it shiver from the summmit to the ground, 
and yet no accident occurred, though in that high and 
spacious hall 2,000 persons were assembled. There are 
in the isle of Scio, the most populous of all the isles of 
Greece, upwards of 100,000 Christians. The rural Greeks 
are far less malignant than the citizens, and of the latter 
all are not equally hostile to the Latins. In the fury of 
the persecution, when the Turks cried havock, and ail 
the anger of the islanders was loosed against the Latins, 
many embraced our religion of themselves, and looked 
upon exiles, and alienation of their goods, with folded 
arms and christian equanimity. 

Several others, though reluctant to relinquish the 
ritual of Greece, which is assuredly good and holy in itself, 
persist in frequenting the confessionals of confessors of 
the catholic religion, from which, by refusing them com- 
munion, the schismatics have frequently endeavoured to 
. divert them : but this has profited them nothing. In the 
country, the people have a tendency to virtue. They 
heard me with joy when I spoke to them of God, and 
invariably several confessed themselves on such occasions. 
If we had the liberty enjoyed in other islands of making 
regulated missions through the villages, and could matters 
subside into a calm, many excellent Christians should be 
produced. The greatest opposition is not that which is 
offered by the Turks, who naturally esteem and love the 
Latins, and more especially the French. It comes entirely 
from the superiors of the Greeks, with whom it is difficult 
to decide whether ignorance or prejudice is paramount. 
As to the Turks, they are whatever you require them to 



32 



A COMPARISON. 



be ; nothing m the world is wanting but to pay theni 
well. Were the Latins as malignant as the Greeks, and 
desirous of turning their tyranny against their foes, the 
Turks would decidedly do whatever they desired at only 
half the cost. They express themselves to this effect. 
They have an inclination towards the Latins as being 
noble, or Beyzadez as they say, while they designate the 
Greeks as the populace, or Tdif. The Jesuits are espe- 
cially respected by the Turks. During* the long abode 
that I made in Scio, I had frequent and public proofs 
of this from the Pachas and distinguished agas of the isle. 
The present possessor of our former house and church 
proposed to give them up to us for what they cost him, 
which amounted to no more than eighty hundred purses, 
or four thousand crowns ; and we should have resumed 
this property long before now, could we but procure 
this sum for him. The commanders of the gallies apper- 
taining to the island, are prodigal of favours, and permit 
us, without any impediment, to administer the rites of 
religion to their slaves. One day I was surprised at 
receiving reiterated invitations from a bey to come on 
board his galley, with the book with which I blessed the 
holy water, because his slaves, as this grave man assured 
me, saw spirits in the night time, which troubled their 
repose. The Latins in the gallies are about 1,200, and 
consist of Germans, Spaniards and Italians, and haply a 
hundred French. Three years since, Father Richard 
Gorre, my successor, expired among the slaves. They 
were making preparationsjfor departure to the Black Sea, 
and the plague was in the gallies. It was Easter ; he 
hastened to those children of his choice, who apprehended 
death without the sacraments, and supplicated the com- 



THE GALLIES. 



33 



mimion. He was entire days amongst them, having pity > 
as he said, upon so many souls so utterly abandoned- 
Ultimately, a malignant fever struck him down in eight 
and forty horns. Every soul in the city was present at 
his obsequies, lamenting his ashes as a father, invoking 
his spirit as a saint. 

If we ever have the happiness of seeing our religion 
enjoy a few halcyon days at Scio, and should we collect, 
as before the Venetians made themselves masters of the 
isle, eight or ten Jesuits, we should be able to re- open 
the missions of Metelene, of the Mosconisses, and of 
Samos. I have visited these islands : the natives are an 
amiable people. Whenever I harangued them on the 
truths of Christianity, they hung upon my words with 
attention and respect. At Metelene, through which I 
travelled thrice, I was endowed by the archbishop with 
all his powers, in the three towns and twenty-four villages 
of his dependency. " Sir Priest, bring three or four of 
your French clergy hither," he exclaimed, with a fami- 
liar and open air, *' ; and you may preach to my people as 
often as you please. You will do no trifle, if you make 
them honest men ; for I find it very difficult to reform 
them/"' 

I have been twice at the Mosconisses ; it is a multitude 

of little isles to the east of Metelene, of great fertility in 

wine and oil, and very near the coast of Anatolia. A town 

is contained in the largest isle, consisting of 600 houses, 

where they entreated me to live, for ever promising to do 

whatsoever I should bid them. When last I was there, 

they were afflicted with the plague, and I was earnestly 

entreated by the terrified inhabitants to pacify the anger 

of the Lord immediately* Judging from appearances, 

c 5 



34 



THE DEPKECATION. 



they had not the most distant idea of applying to their 
papas. Over against the town of Mosconissa, a town of 
double size appears upon the mainland, which latter 
forms a curve round about the oriental point of Metelene ; 
following this curving of the coast, the extent of which 
is forty leagues, you meet with many lovely shores 
sprinkled here and there with human habitations, whose 
inhabitants are quite as unacquainted with religion as the 
Indians of America. Upon these shores, as well as on 
the inland farms, many Latin slaves are to be met with, 
who, unhappy people ! hardly know they have a soul. 
The most important places on the curve are Adramit 
and Elea, ancient towns, but which are, at the present 
day, completely ruined. Many little places may be met 
with here and there thinly strewn along the shore. ? Tis 
a very lovely country, but utterly unknown, where inva- 
luable souls are perpetually perishing without any one 
enquiring if they so much as exist. We may say the 
same of all that part of Anatolia as you penetrate the 
terra firma. There are only some footsteps of the faith 
among the Greeks, who have lost even the language of 
the country : the shreds of the service which they still 
preserve are offered up in Turkish. There is another 
mission at the portals, as it were, of Scio — the lovely isle 
of Samos ; it contains 1,800 houses, and near 15,000 
souls, and perhaps three villages. The bishop and the 
chief ecclesiastics invited us to visit them. I sojourned 
in the isle for three weeks' time, delivering instructions, 
and preaching in the public places and the churches, as 
much as I desired. Of all the natives of the Isles of 
Greece, I have seen none more intellectual than those of 
Samos ; they stand in the utmost need, however, of 



SAM OS 



35 



zealous mission ers. I expect these ancient missions will 
speedily put forth new flowers and fruits, when that of 
Scio (as it were their centre) is once re-established. 
4th 3f arch. 1714. Tarillox. 



AX ACCOUNT, IX THE POEM OF A JOURNAL, OP A 
NEWLY-FORMED ISLE WHICH HAS ISSUED FROM THE 
SEA AT SAXTORIN, OR SAXTERIXI. 

It is not in our days only that the Gulf of Santorin 
hath become famous from the new and extraordinary 
isles to which it has given birth. According to Pliny, 
lib. 2. cap. 82, the isle Santerini, whose ancient appella- 
tion was Theramenen, or Thera, itself issued from the 
profound ; but, be that as it may, two other isles, which 
are adjacent, hare certainly had this origin. That 
which was known as Hiera in anterior times, because it 
was consecrated to Pluto, is designated now the great 
Comment^ or Big-burnt-island. It was in the 145th 
Olympiad, according to the historian Justin, that is 196 
years before the birth of Christ, that the waves revealed 
it. These are the words which the historian uses : — 
Eodem anno inter instdas Theramenen et Therasium 
medio utriusque ripce et maris spatio terrce mot us fait in 
quo cum admiratione navigantivm repente ex- prof undo cum 
culidis aquis insula emersit. 

The other, called the Little Cammeni by the people of 
the country, or Little-burnt-island, to discriminate this 
isle from the other which is greater, was born of the 
ocean, (according to the account of the very oldest peo- 
ple, who had heard it from their ancestors) in 1573 

Inhabitants reside upon these two isles, or rather these 



36 JOURNAL OF A NEWLY-FORMED ISLE. 

two rocks — the great Cammeni being the elder isle 
. — shews a little verdure after rains. The Little- 
burnt -island, which is nearer Santerini, is always black 
and sterile. It is between these two islands, but 
much nearer the smaller than the greater, that the 
island has emerged which this narrative relates to* 
The isle of Santorin, whose name is so frequently 
repeated in this account, is amongst the most sou- 
thern of all the isles of Greece, and is a hundred miles 
per haps from Candia : its circuit is from twelve to fif- 
teen leagues. The soil is very dry, and barley and 
cotton are said to be the only produce, though abundant 
figs and valuable wines are likewise found there. Horror 
is inspired by the repulsive aspect of the side that 'con- 
templates 'the two Cammeni, and the novel isle, black 
rocks and dismal precipices, which fire appears to have 
consumed for ages, compose it exclusively. Upon the 
island there are five walled towns, pretty well defended, 
which are called castles, and of which Scaro is the most 
considerable. Scaro is constructed on a little cape pro- 
truding in the sea to a considerable distance. It is the 
nearest to the recent isle of all the castles, being only 
three miles distant from the latter. At one of the ex- 
tremities of the island, on a mountain called San Ste- 
phano, some ancient ruins of white marble may be seen. 
Medals had been stricken in Santorin at one time, and 
many are found with the heads of Marcus Aurelius, Lu- 
cius Verus, Septimus Severus, and of his family, &c. 
On the reverse, they have all the w r ord Thereon, or 
Theraoin, an ancient name for the isle of Thera. 

On the dawn of day, on the 23d of May, 1707, they 
perceived the initials of the novel isle, which was issuing 



THE VISIT, 



37 



from the deep, between Big-burnt-island and the smaller 
Cammeni, at the distance of three miles from Santo - 
rin. May the 18th, at noontide, two little jolts had 

been felt at Santorin — tremblings of an earthquake. 

They were at the time unattended to, but persons had 
subsequently reason to suppose that it was at that iden- 
tical instant, that the novel isle commenced its separa- 
tion from the bottom of the sea, and began to lift its 
head above the surface of the deep. Be that as it mav, % 
certain it is, that very early in the morning, certain ma- 
riners having discerned across the surge the pinnacles, or 
points of the nascent isle, without being able to ascer- 
tain their nature, resolved that these were the relics of a 
shipwreck which had happened, they imagined, the 
preceding night. In this idea they pulled for the isle 
with the utmost energy, in the hope of being the first 
that should profit by the wreck. 

But as soon as they perceived that, in place of floating 
fragments, they were points of crags and solid land, the 
terrified mariners returned to publish, with pale faces, 
wherever they came, the nature of their discovery. Fear 
was at first universal throughout Santerini, where they 
were well aware that lands of this description had never 
become visible without causing disasters to their isle. 
Two or three days, however, having passed without 
anything disastrous occurring, some of its citizens sum- 
moned resolution, having more hardihood than the others, 
to contemplate it near at hand. A length of time was 
spent in circumnavigation ; they went round and round, 
and pausing before every side, considered its every ap- 
pearance with attention. Ultimately perceiving nothing 
perilous, they approached and disembarked. Curiosity 



38 



THE VISIT. 



caused them to range from rock to rock ; wherever they 
turned, there appeared a species of stone as white as 
bread, which could be cut as easily, and so strongly 
resembling it in form, consistency, taste, and colour, 
that you would really have taken it for wheaten bread 
A discovery that caused them more delight, was that of 
fine fresh oysters, fastened to the rocks, which are 
exceeding rare in Santerini ; they set about collecting 
them with great industry. But when they least 
expected it, and while they were busily employed in 
depriving it of oysters, a sudden shudder or shivering 
seized upon the earth. A universal tremor ran among 
the rocks, and illimitable horror filling the hearts of the 
fishers as the ground vacillated underneath them, they 
quitted their prey in consternation, and, springing to 
their boats, rowed from the isle with the rapidness of 
lightning. The island increased visibly, self-elevated 
from the surface of the sea, it grew ! ! and its rocks 
arose with such rapidity, that in two days' time, it 
doubled its extent, and attained the height of twenty 
feet. 

As this upward motion, by which it was increased in 
breadth and height, was sometimes slow and sometimes 
fast, the isle did not equally increase every day on every 
side. It even sometimes sunk in certain places, while 
it arose and extended itself slowly and laterally in other 
places. / 

One day, amongst others, a rock, remarkable alike 
from size and shape, issued from the ocean, forty or fifty 
paces from the isle. For four days I watched this rock 
with great attention, when it sunk into the sea, and never 
appeared a second time. But it was not so with several 



TWO ISLANDS. 



39 



others, which, having arisen, and ranged themselves 
beside their predecessors, .dipped in the deep and then 
returned, subsided, and then were swallowed by the 
circling waters, and then emerged and became firm, 
permanent, and stable. The swaying of such mighty 
masses shook the Little-burnt -isle, upon whose summit 
they observed a fissure, cleft or opening, which was 
never seen before. In the gulf, the colour of the ocean 
often changed during the time. At one time it became 
a brilliant green, then a reddish hue came over it ; it 
then faded to a pale yellow, an insupportable stink 
accompanying these changes. 

Smoke was seen to issue on the 16th of July, from 
a chain of black rocks, which, at sixty paces from the 
isle, had suddenly arisen in a place where bottom never 
had been found. Two separate isles existed now, one 
was called the black and the other the white isle ; their 
union, however, was not long delayed, but so they came 
together, that the black newly-risen rocks were the 
centre of the isle. The smoke which issued from these 
rocks was thick and whitish, such as might emerge from 
many kilns of lime if united into one. It was borne by 
the wind upon many habitations, and its volumes were 
rolled in without doing any harm, as its smell was not 
very insalubrious. Ruddy tongues of fire ascended 
from the centre of the smoke on the night of the nine- 
teenth of July, which, while fear sunk heavy in their 
hearts, were regarded by the islanders of Santerini with 
considerate and rueful eyes ; by those more especially of 
Scaro, the most exposed by their vicinity, for the latter 
were only half a mile from the fiery isle. Being built 
upon the point of a promontory which is, comparatively 



40 



APPREHENSIONS. 



speaking, as narrow as a sword blade, Scaro, half 
suspended as it hangs above the sea on the summit of a 
precipice, is exceedingly dangerously placed. At the 
melancholy sight of fire and smoke which were shooting 
from the sea so near them, they expected nothing but 
that they and their very narrow headland should be 
blown into the sky ; for, as they supposed, there were 
veins of sulphury matter, which, doubtless communicated 
from the fiery isle, which like trains of gunpowder, 
sooner or later would explode, they said, and if this did 
not happen, assuredly something else would. A tremor 
of the earth would shake them all down from the summit 
of their precipice, and drown them with their houses in 
the deep underneath. Either way they are sped. They 
resolved to relinquish the castle as they called it, to 
change their dwellings and remove their goods, or haply 
to retire to some other island till time should tell what 
this might end in. Many in reality removed, and it 
was with difficulty that others were induced to stay. The 
Turks, who were then at Santerini, to raise the tribute 
which is levied for the grand Signior, were not the 
persons who were least affected. Astounded, appalled, 
and overwhelmed with amazement at seeing fire ascending 
omnipotently from so deep a sea, the Turks exhorted 
all the people to repeat their prayers, and to make their 
children march through all the streets, crying, Kyrie 
eleisoriy Kyrie eleison, at the tops of their tiny voices. 
Accordingly, their innocent processions filled the city, a 
measure recommended by the Mussulmans with emphasis, 
and for which those serious Turks assigned a solemn 
reason. Not having yet offended God, these innocents 
were more proper to appease his wrath than full-grown 



A FIERY COLUMN. 



41 



people, they said. Nevertheless, the flame that as yet 
appeared was but a trifle, since it only issued from a 
single point, and the column of fire was only visible in 
the night time. 

Neither fire or smoke appeared upon the white isle ; 
nevertheless, it failed not to increase continually : the 
black arose with more rapidity, however, and mighty 
rocks emerged diurnally, which added at one time to its 
length, and sometimes to its wideness ; and so perceptibly, 
that these changes caught the eye from time to time, 
and you could see it grow. These rocks were united to 
the isle sometimes, and were sometimes very remote : thus 
four black islands were formed in a month, which, in four 
days time, came together, and only one was to be seen. 
We remarked, moreover, that the smoke was much 
augmented, and as no wind was blowing at the time, it 
ascended in one straight column to so great a height, that 
the mighty mass was seen from Candia, and Naxos, and 
remoter isles. This smoke appeared to be, at night, a 
tremendous pillar of fire, — to the height at least of 
fifteen feet 'twas all fire apparently ; the sea blushed with 
a reddish froth in some places, while in others it assumed 
a yellow hue. So infectious was the smell which diffused 
itself through Santorin, that you might see here and there 
long pyramids of fire lighted by the citizens, flaming 
along all the streets, where perfumes were burned to 
counteract the stench. This infection had continued for 
a day and a half, when a strong, fresh southern wind 
swept it all away, clearing the island of the evil, but only 
to replace it by another ; for the long column of ignited 
smoke was turned on the island, and, scorching the vine- 
yards in its course, it burned up the grapes, then nearly 



42 



THE VOLCANIC ISLES. 



lit forgathering, and it lefttliem in a single night shriveled, 
dry and useless. Silver and brass suddenly lost their 
brightness, 'twas observed, and became black and dim 
wherever the volumes of this smoke were rolled ; it 
likewise occasioned vomitings and violent head-aches to 
the islanders. The white isle sank on a sudden about 
this time, and became ten feet lower than it had been 
previously. 

July the 8 1 st, smoke was seen gushing from the sea, 
and its billows were perceived to boil in two places, the 
one at thirty and the second at sixty paces, from the 
black isle. These two spots were circular, and in them 
the water was like oil upon the fire. While this continued, 
which was upwards of a month, fishes were found dead 
upon the sea shore. We were startled the succeeding 
night by a loud, dull noise, like salvos of cannon heard 
remote, from the centre of the furnace. As quick as 
lightening, two long lances of flame shot upwards to the 
heavens ; they were extinguished instantaneously. On 
the 1st of August, we heard the same dull noise 
repeatedly — smoke succeeded, not white as before, but a 
blueish black, which rose right towards the skies, unaf- 
fected by a fresh north wind, to a prodigious elevation in 
the form of a column. If it had been night, this pillar of 
smoke would have been one mass of fire. The noise 
was not so loud upon the 7th of August, but still it was 
as loud as if many loads of stones were hurled, roaring to 
the bottom of some pit of vast profundity. It is not at 
all improbable, that these were mighty rocks, which, 
having first arisen with the rising isle, their gravity 
detached them, and they rolled down that mountain's 
side. This idea may receive corroboration from the cir- 



THE WOULD OF PIKE. 



43 



cumstance, that the edges of the isle were eternally in 
motion during these great noises. The rocks which 
formed it going and coming, subsiding now, and now 
appearing. This dull noise had continued many days, 
when it suddenly became much louder ; and this tremen- 
dous roaring was so similar to thunder, that when it 
thundered in reality, which was twice or thrice, the 
difference was scarce discernible between the salvos in 
the sky and the noise that issued from the deep. On the 
21st of August, the fire and smoke perceptibly diminished. 
There was very little fire in the night time even. It 
resumed new vigour at the dawn, however, when it 
exhibited a strength which it never had displayed. The 
smoke was very red and very dense, and the fire so 
furious, that the sea which surrounded the black isle 
boiled and smoked surprisingly. One night, telescope 
in hand, I perused this world of fire. Besides the fur- 
nace which burned on the apex of the isle, sixty others 
were to be seen of the most brilliant red. On the other 
side of the isle, there were probably as many, which I 
could not see. I found that the isle was much more high 
on the morning of the 22nd than it had been when I went 
to bed. A chain of newly-risen rocks, which had issued 
from the water in the night time, had added to its breadth 
by fifty feet ; while the sea was mantled with that reddish 
scum which I have already spoken of, and the smell of 
which was insupportable. The fire on the 5th of 
September found a passage for itself at the end of the 
black isle, in the direction of Therasia, which was a con- 
tinuation once of the land of Santerini, but which, they 
say, was separated by a shivering of the earth, by which 
the sea was put between them. From this new orifice 



44 



THE LANCE. 



the fire was seen to issue for a few days, during which it 
seemed to slumber in the greater furnace. 

We might, if our safety were secure, and had our 
spirits been relieved from the fardel of inquietude, have 
elicited amusement from the spectacle before us. The 
mouth sent forth from its lips of flame three immense sky 
rockets, of the most beautiful and brilliant fire, three 
several times. The scene, however, was completely 
altered the succeeding nights. When the dull rolling 
of subterranean thunder, w r hich commonly occurred, had 
roaring, died within the caverns, long sheafs of light 
appeared over the isle in the air, all over corruscating 
with myriads of sparkling radiations, and which, following 
one another, ascended to an amazing height, and then 
returned in a rain of stars which enlightened all the isle. 
This play was troubled with a new phenomenon, which 
some esteemed of evil augury. A lance of fire, that 
reached from earth to heaven, detached itself in the centre 
of the rockets, and having hung above the town of Scaro, 
perfectly at rest, perfectly immoveable, on a sudden it 
clomb into the skies like a fiery serpent, and piercing the 
altitude, 'twas lost to human vision. 

The two isles, the white and the black, from continually 
growing, began to unite on the 9th of September, and to 
make no more than a single body. That end of the isle 
lying opposite the south-east ceased to increase in height 
or length, subsequent to this conjunction. While that 
which was opposite the west might be distinctly seen 
perpetually growing longer. Of all the openings of 
which I have spoken, only four emitted fire. Smoke 
issued with impetuosity at times from the whole four, 
while sometimes it emerged from one or two merely — 



THE VOLCATvIC ISLE. 



45 



sometimes with and sometimes without roarings, but 
almost always with such hissings, that they might have 
been mistaken for sounds emitted by an organ-pipe, and 
at times for the roarings of ferocious animals. 

The 22nd of September, the thunder under ground 
had never been so terrible as on this day and the fol- 
lowing, though it should have issued with less fury, it 
was natural to think, from four mouths than from one. 
Peal upon peal, doubling detonations like universal sal- 
vos of the heaviest artillery, were at least ten times 
heard in four and twenty hours, and then from the fiery 
lips of the larger mouth, red hot stones, of enormous 
magnitude, were hurled flaming to the sky, soaring as if 
to burn heaven's concave ; from which, descending 
towards the earth, they sunk hissing in the sea. The 
very thickest smoke accompanied these thunders, whose 
enormous volumes ascended in the shape of waves, which, 
whenever it was dissipated, clouds of ashes were diffused, 
of which whirlwinds were carried to Anasi, an island 25 
miles from Santorin. Some of these ashes were collected, 
and when placed upon black, their colour appeared 
whitish, whereas their tinge was blackish when their 
ground was white. I flung some into the fire to dis- 
cover the effect, because it was as granulous as gunpow- 
der, but it only feebly hissed and spit without giving 
forth the slightest flame. 

September 18, there was a concussion of the earth at 
Santorin, which, however, did no damage. The isle 
became conspicuously greater; as well as the accom- 
panying fire and flame, which on this day issued by new 
apertures. I had never before seen such sheets of flame, 
nor heard such resounding peals of thunder underground; 



46 



THE VOLCANIC ISLE. 



their violence was so extraordinary as to make the houses 
shake in Scaro. The rattle and the clatter of a universe of 
stones, which, singing as they went, were whirled through 
the air with the whirring noise of bullets, and then fell 
back upon the isle with such a collision as seemed suffi- 
cient to dissolve the frame of things, penetrated to our 
ears through a mighty mass of smoke, which exactly 
resembled an inverted mountain. The small cammeni, 
or the Little-burnt-island, was often covered with these 
red hot stones, making that black and barren spot 
resplendant. When first we saw it sheathed in flame, in 
this way, from the nearness of the isles, we immediately 
imagined that the fire had passed from one to the other 
under water; we deceived ourselves; it was simply 
occasioned by sulphureous stones which were burned out 
in half an hour. 

September the 21st, after one of those tremendous 
peals, and while the Little-burnt-island was a sheet of 
flame, three great flashes which resembled lightening, 
which the crater flung out as if banners of flame traversed 
in the turn of an eye, the whole horizon of the deep. 
Instantaneously the new isle trembled through its whole 
extent. A portion of the crater's lip fell in, and red hot 
rocks of prodigious size flew flaming to the clouds. We 
imagined that the mine had spent its energy. For four 
successive days, all was quiet as the grave : the crater's 
lips were calm, distinct, and clearly visible, and neither 
fire nor smoke were belched against the serene skies. 

The fire, however, resumed its fury on the 25th, and 
the isle became more terrible than ever. Peal succeeding 
peal, our words seemed extinguished on our lips ; we 
found it difficult to hear one another, when suddenly 



EXPLOSION, 



47 



amidst this mighty uproar, one explosion roared so loud 
that its bellowing seemed to fill the universe, sending 
every soul in Santerini aghast and speechless to the 
churches. The solid rock that Scaro stands on shook 
responsively, and the doors of all the dwelling-houses 
were flung furiously open. 

For the' purpose of precluding useless repetitions, I 
shall be satisfied with saying, that things continued in 
the same condition during October, November, December, 
1707 ; and January, 1708, there was one eruption of the 
furnace every day, and sometimes five or six. 

A tremendous tremefaction of the earth occurred at 
Santerini, on the 10th of February. 1708. There had 
been a slighter undulation in the night time, which caused 
us to conjecture, informed as we were by sad experience, 
that our volcano was preparing us some scene of terror. 
We were not kept waiting for it very long — fire, flame, 
smoke, and peals of subterraneous thunder. 5 Twas 
horrible. Rocks of such a size as never had appeared 
above the level of the water lifted their ample bulk into 
the air, and the delirious billowy boilings of the deep 
augmented so amazingly, that, accustomed as we were 
to its frantic concussions, the hurly-burly was so horrible, 
every heart was terror stricken. 

The roaring under ground ceased to intermit as 
formerly, for now night and day 'twas one continued 
roar, while the vomiting of fire from the principal furnace 
was as frequent as five times in a quarter of an hour ; 
and meantime, its doubling peals of thunder, by the 
magnitude, the amazing multitude of stones shot, as it 
were, from the throat of the crater ; by the tottering 
and tremefaction of the houses, and by the fire which 



48 



THE NEW ISLAND. 



flamed in the middle of the open day (which we never 
yet experienced) surpassed the horrors we had hitherto 
beheld. 

The 15th of April was famous above all other days 
for the number and the violence of these repeated peals. 
Seeing nothing for a length of time but flame and fiery 
smoke extending to the skies, and flights of burning 
stones filling the air for ever, we were certain that we 
should not find a fragment of the isle, as it would all be 
shot into the skies. Nothing of the kind occurred, 
however, half of the volcano's lip was broken for the 
second time, but the edge of the crater became higher 
than before, by heaps of stones and ashes which repaired 
it. 

From the 15th day of April till the 23rd of May, 
the anniversary of the birth of the isle, every thing 
continued in the same condition. But while the island 
continued to increase in height, you could remark that 
laterally it grew no larger. The crater of the greatest 
furnace grew up to a taller height, and by means of a 
melted matter, sulphur and vitriol in my esteem, the 
fabric was kept together until it formed an immense 
pate to which the declivity or slope was quite enormous. 
In the end, by imperceptible gradations, every thing 
grew gradually calm, the fire and the smoke diminished 
by degrees, the thunder became tolerable under ground, 
and though frequent, its reiterated claps were not so 
frightful. Perhaps the combustibles that fed the fire 
were no longer so abundant, and their canaliculated 
passages had been probably enlarged. 

I executed a design I had formed from the first (of 
visiting the new born isle,) the 15th of July. The sea 



A VISIT. 



49 



was calm, the sky serene, the fires were very feeble, 
I prevailed upon our Latin bishop, M. L. Francois Crispo, 
together with some priests, to join the party ; we were 
careful to procure a good caique whose seams were 
diligently caulked and sedulously stuffed with a double 
share of tow. Determined as we were to debark upon 
the isle, we rowed right upon a shore where, though the 
sea had ceased to boil, it still was smoking. No sooner 
had this smoke received us, than we felt that we were 
seized by a suffocating heat. Leaning from the gunnel 
of the boat, a member of our party put his hand into the 
tide : it was scalding hot. We were yet five hundred 
paces from our journey's end. As we considered it 
impossible to approach the isle by this way, we turned 
towards the point which was farthest from the great 
volcano, that is, at the end at which the island had increased 
in length. The fire, with which it still was flaming, 
and the billowy boiling of the surges, compelled us to 
describe a semicircle, in doing which we felt the heat. 
I had an opportunity of seeing the space between the 
little Cammeni and the newly-formed isle. It was 
greater than I had anticipated, and judging by the eye 
a galley might pass with a flowing sheet, in the places 
where this frith was narrowest. From thence we proceeded 
to the great Cammeni, where we could consider at our 
ease the isle in its utmost length, and especially that 
side which we could not contemplate from Scaro. It 
was about 200 feet in height, a mile in breadth, and 
perhaps 5000 feet in circuit. When we had spent about 
an hour in considering all its appearances, the propensity 
to visit it resumed its empire over us, as well as to 
attempt to tread upon the shore of that particular part 



50 THE FLIGHT. 

known by the name of the White Isle. This place 
having ceased to increase for several months, neither fire 
nor smoke had since been seen there. Having re-embarked, 
we directed our rowers to convey us thither. When we 
were distant from the shore, perhaps two hundred paces, 
I put my hand into the brine, and found that the 
nearer we approached, the hotter it became. We cast 
the lead, but there was no bottom to be found with five 
and twenty fathom. Resting on our oars, we paused to 
deliberate as to advance or retrogression, when the 
volcano suddenly resumed its fury, bellowing aloud and 
belching fire and flame with all its ordinary violence. 
In order to crown us with disgrace, as a fresh breeze 
was blowing from the fire, we were powdered by the 
dust, and buried in the billows of the smoke, which 
came pouring upon us in enormous volumes. We 
were in raptures with the wind, since it brought us 
nothing worse. To see the condition to which we were 
reduced by this inundation of ashes, Cato might have 
smiled ; but, however droll the figures which our fellows 
cut, we all maintained our gravity ; for the only thing 
w r e thought of was to hasten our retreat. We were but 
a mile and a half from the isle, when the hurley -hurley 
recommenced, and a quantity of red hot stones were 
flung into the place we had quitted. Moveover, when 
we disembarked at Santerini, our mariners remarked, 
that the warmth of the water had removed all the pitch 
from the keel of the caique, whose seams began to gape 
on every side. 

I remained at Santerini till the 15th of August, 1708; 
the isle continued, during all this time, to vomit fire and 
smoke^ and burning stones, accompanied with a great 



THE KEEP. 



51 



rumbling, but which was far inferior to that of the 
preceding months. From my departure to this 24th of 
June, 1710, I have received many letters, and put 
questions to such people as came from Santerini. The 
isle, I understand, continues still to burn, and the sea 
in its vicinity to boil ; and there is no appearance of a 
cessation. 

Extracts from a Letter on the same subject, written from 
Santerini* September 14th, 1712. 

It is now precisely a year since I arrived in Santerini. 
A few hours subsequent to my arrival, I proceeded to 
examine, with all possible exactitude, the present situation, 
and every other wonder connected with the isle, with 
which you wish to be acquainted. I have had a sufficiency 
of leisure to reiterate my observations ; for the isle was 
almost beneath my eyes, being at little more than three 
miles' distance. I have frequently described a circle 
round it, but always at a little distance, from the warmth 
retained by the water, at a quarter of a league from 
shore. While we impelled the boat with measured 
strokes, somebody on board kept his fingers in the wave 
to apprise us of the moment when the water was too 
warm. Were it not for this, we should be caught in 
the manner in which many were at first — the pitch 
disappearing from the bottom of the boats as clean as if 
fire had removed it from the vessel. Its circumference 
appeared to be about five miles. Stones, that are burned 
to the colour of a cinder, are heaped pell-mell over all its 
surface. Some having fallen on their ends, present, in 

* Five years subsequent to the first appearance. 



52 



THE KEEP. 



the middle of tlie waste, the appearance of a Turkish 

cemetery. 

On the water's edge, in the newly- formed isle, a 
natural fabric arises opposite the small Cammeni, more 
than 400 feet in height, something like a bastioned keep, 
which arises so stately, majestic, and well-proportioned, 
that it was long before I could yield to the belief, that 
it was not in reality the work of men. The body of this 
fortress appears to be composed of a greyish clay ; it is 
open at the summit, and at the sides it is encrusted with 
a molten matter, which is seemingly a mixture of vitriol 
and sulphur. This opening, 30 or 40 feet perhaps in 
diameter, is designated by the natives of the country 
the Great Furnace. In the other side, three apertures 
appear a little under this opening, resembling embrasures 
of guns. On the side that fronts the shore, the face of 
the furnace is perfectly steep, presenting so perpendicular 
a front, that it could not possibly be clomb. On the 
far side of the furnace, you may ascend to the summit 
of the crater, by means of stupendous rocks piled on 
one another. During a year that I have been here, I 
only saw the furnace play in a single instance, and that 
was on the day that I arrived. It commenced at two in 
the afternoon, and continued until four. 

I know not how to express what I heard and saw. In 
two hours' time, with a noise which equalled the report 
of a park of artillery, seven explosions succeeded one 
another with such rapidity, that one hardly waited for 
the other, while red hot rocks of twenty feet in length 
were sent to an amazing height, and then fell naming in 
the sea at two miles' distance. The dense smoke by 
which they were accompanied, which was nearly as thick, 



ECHOES. 



53 



white, and palpable as cotton, stretched sublimely to the 
sky in the form of a column. Indifferent to the wind 
that was blowing very freshly, this smoke, without the 
slightest declination, ascended like a tower perfectly per- 
pendicular. While these were emitted from the loftiest 
aperture, the orifices underneath y omitted streams of 
melted matter, which were yiolet, red, or orange colour, 
and which glistened as they ran. After the louder claps 
of the yolcano, followed by the emission of the rocks, 
echoes might be heard below which absolutely seemed to 
resemble drums and trumpets ; while the shrill neighings 
of innumerable horses, the yelling tones of hounds, and 
the bellowing of bulls, seemed to the pale listeners to 
resound in the bowels of the land. Since that eyentful 
day, which was, as I declared, the 14th of last September, 
the furnace has neither vomited fire nor bellowed 
thunder. From time to time, the three embrasures of 
the furnace puff out volumes of a thick smoke, which 
cannot tower from the upper orifice, unless when it 
happens to be more abundant. When rain is very heavy, 
smoke ascends from the body of the furnace, which spits 
and hisses from the falling rain just like red hot iron when 
water happens to be thrown on it. At present, I am 
employed in making out a plan of the new island, not 
indeed with geometrical exactitude, but with as little 
error as may be. I have not been able to assume a 
sufficiency of courage ; if better, it be not temerity to 
repair with some of the inhabitants of Santerini, to debark 
upon the isle in those situations where its heat is least 
intolerable, but from which, in all the instances, the 
visitors retreated with such velocity, as utterly to eclipse 
the rapidness with which they had approached it ; their 



54 



SHOES. 



shoes being burned to the very flesh, and their vessel 
overflowing with the tide, though two persons w r ere 
employed to bale it out, as well as to stop the apertures 
occasioned by the heat. 

The adventurers brought home stones of purified 
sulphur, with a congealed and solid substance, looking 
very like a mixture of bitumen and vitriol. A liquid 
matter, of a reddish colour, but which is sometimes yellow, 
and very often green, issues from an angle at the foot of 
the volcano, though it fail to vomit fire. This liquor 
comes from underneath the earth, and, for four or five 
miles in every direction, the deep is discoloured by its 
junction. The newly-formed isle has ceased to grow. 
In proportion to its augmentation, since its emission from 
the ocean, has the Little-burnt-isle decreased, and the 
latter daily continues to diminish. A lapse of six or 
seven feet has taken place in the side of Santerini, which 
is opposite. Certain marine magazines are on a level with 
the water, where the caique now enters with a flowing 
sheet, while previously to the appearance of the isle they 
were five feet above the surface of the sea. 

I cannot imagine how all this will end, but the sight is 
indeed very far from being agreeable. The great horse 
shoe which constitutes the bay of Santerini, in which three 
new isles appeared at intervals, the traditions of the 
country aver, was dry land at one time that sunk into the 
sea. Perhaps the other side of Santerini, like the arm 
of a balance, with its towns and castles, shall descend in 
the deep, now that this side hath ascended. What would 
seem to confirm my conjecture is, 1st, that earthquakes 
commonly occur in Santerini ; hence that there is fire in 
the foundation of the isle, is not improbable, which, slowly 



THE F LYING FIELDS. 



55 



consuming the basis of the island, on some fine day the 
latter may suddenly subside when least expected ; as along 
the lofty scarp that fronts the sea, from time to time, tremen- 
dous rocks detach themselves from the steep, and descend 
into the surge : one moonlight night, some years ago, in 
this way, one half of our garden slipped away from us. 

2nd, The isle substantially consists of pumice-stone, 
which is simply a stone that has been subjected to the 
action of fire, and in which the inhabitants of Santerini 
hollow habitations with facility. Ere the basis of the 
isle could thus be calcined, it must have been completely 
penetrated by igneous exhalations. 

3d, In the champaign country, as well as in the vine- 
yards, the soil is simply fine light ashes, at a few feet 
under which the pumice-stone is found. This soil does 
not fail to be fertile, such as it is, especially in rainy 
seasons ; when the season is dry, however, the country 
is desolate. He who has a field to-day may have nothing 
but the naked stone to-morrow, as the soil may have 
quitted him and flown to a neighbour, and haply from 
him to some one else ; being transported by the winds 
from place to place. 

4th, The wines that are grown in Santerini have the 
colour and the taste of sulphur, and are, speaking gene- 
rally, exceeding strong, proving that they are impregnated 
with the spirit of fire. In a word, I compare Santerini 
to a mighty laboratory, where corn and wine and all 
commodities are created by the agency of minerals and 
fire. The isle has already lasted many years, God grant 
that it may still continue, and that the fires which seem 
operating beneath it may not penetrate the solid basis of 
the isle, and, flaming to the heavens, overwhelm Santerini 
in combustion. 



THE 

MISSION OF ST. JOSEPH AT ANTOURA. 



It can never be forgotten by the mission of Antoura? 
that its establishment is owing to Signior Abuneufel, the 
most distinguished of all the nobles of the Maronite 
nation. He was not only our protector throughout the 
whole course of his valuable life, he was the benefactor of 
the J esuits ; it may be said of him with truth, that his 
nation is indebted to this nobleman for all those works of 
charity which heaven has deigned to operate by the 
ministry of the missioners whom he established, main- 
tained, defended, 

Antoura is a village in the Anti-Libanus, situated 
between Beiroot and Gibal, or Giblos, being five French 
leagues from either village. The cedar wood was carried 
to the latter town, which was hewn upon the heights of 
Libanus, for the temple of Solomon ; it was fashioned in 
the town of Giblos, and carried upon chariots to Jerusalem 
at the fiat of Hiram, King of Tyre. 

In Arabic, Antoura signifies the rocky fountain ; for 
it stands beside a craggy mountain, from which a limpid 
fountain issues which meanders through the town. 

In this town it is that Signior Abuneufel procured us 
an establishment — an advantageous establishment ; for 
when they return to this house, overwhelmed with fatigue 
from the rude missions of the mountains, our brethren 



GARDEN, 



57 



are speedily restored to health in its salutary air. More- 
over, as the country is Catholic and Christian, we are 
always certain of a safe asylum here, should sudden 
revolutions at any time drive us from our other missions. 
Such is the situation of Antoura, too, that our missioners 
can make evangelical excursions into any given quarter 
of Lebanon, where our spiritual aid may be eminently 
needed, with great conveniency. 

Though our house is small, it suits our purposes : a 
little garden, which accompanies it, supplies us with 
legumes. They are watered by the waters of the foun- 
tain which 1 spoke of. At a little distance from our 
house, we have a chapel, which was built and ornamented 
originally by one of our Society, a skilful architect ; it 
was dedicated to Saint Joseph, by our earlier missioners, 
who conferred upon the mission the name of this puissant 
protector, whose credit with our Saviour we frequently 
experience. We are obliged at the present time, for 
particular reasons, to rebuild this little chapel ; we intend 
to make it more commodious for our disciples and our- 
selves — an enterprise we never should have undertaken, 
had not certain noble ladies of Lorraine benevolently 
assisted us. Even ornaments were provided by those 
ladies for the church, and sent out to us : a tabernacle 
has been recently received from them, in which our 
Saviour's body will repose with decency. 

Missions to the remotest mountains of Lebanon, and 
Anti-libanus, and the villages of the Kesroan, succeed 
one another without interruption. We take different 
seasons of the year for them ; for the remotest missions, 
we select the times when the Maronites keep lent ; and 

the Maronites keep four. They keep one in common 

d 5 



58 



THE HERMITS. 



with all other Catholics previously to Easter, another is 
our Advent, and those of the Assumption of the Virgin 
and of St. Peter and St. Paul, (these two last of fifteen 
days' duration) constitute the others. Between these 
lents the intervals are spent in missions to the villages 
around us, composing the Kesroan, which consists of 40 
villages, considerably peopled. These villages are visited 
successively, whose curates, who are neither so learned 
nor so well acquainted with the curial duties as those of 
Europe, and who are quite as desirous of our coming as 
are their congregations, receive us with affection, The 
profit they derive from their presence at our exercises, ren- 
ders them much more useful to their flocks. Besides, there 
are many little monasteries scattered through the moun- 
tains, hermitages rather, of Greeks and Maronites, who 
recognise St. Anthony for their patriarch. These hermits 
are covered with a garment of goat's hair, and wear upon 
their heads a little black capouche ; their feet are naked, 
and they are constantly employed in manual labour or in 
prayer ; they relieve one another all the night time in 
singing a Syriac version of the psalms. They live upon 
legumes, and water is their beverage. They repose upon 
the floor, and observe unbroken silence all the day time. 
We are wonderfully well received when we visit these 
recluses : we maintain them in the Catholic religion, in 
the frequentation of the sacraments, in attending to their 
duties, and we and they hold conferences together. An 
eight days' retreat, such as St. Ignatius recommends, is 
found most efficacious by the missioners as a means of 
reviving a religious spirit, and of establishing purity of 
faith and manners amongst the monastics. 



HAMLETS. 



59 



The following is from a missioner amongst them :— 
^ Father Mole and myself have recently returned from 
an evangelic expedition in Kesroan. I had served an 
apprenticeship, some years before, under the egis of a 
missioner of much experience in reaping the harvest of 
the gospel in the vallies of Kesroan and the mountains of 
Lebanon. 

Father Mole and I having been destined to continue 
it, we commenced our visits by the villages which are 
found along the margins^of the Dog, and we penetrated 
subsequently to the hamlets that are deeper in the bosom 
of the land. We prolonged our sojourn in the these 
villages in proportion to their population, for some are 
scantily and others densely peopled ; but whether the 
inhabitants be few or many, they invariably need in- 
struction. However, it is a pleasure to impart instruction, 
when the persons you approach for such a purpose, receive 
you with the gratulations with which we have been 
honoured in every instance, in these sequestered hamlets. 

As soon as we had arrived in any village in which 
there was a church, a species of bell which is used 
universally in Kesroan, and which is not made of metal 
like its European brothers, but more a clapper than a 
bell, its materia] is wood, apprised the people of our 
coming, who immediately gather together, simultaneously. 
The sacred ceremony of mass commenced our exercises ; 
a discourse on the general duties of a Christian, on those 
of their particular condition, and on preparations for a 
good communion followed. Their untiring attention 
gives us animation in instructing them. One of our 
party dedicates himself to teaching the children their 
catechism. We find them uninformed generally, because 



60 



THE BEAUTIFUL. 



their parents and priests are much more occupied witli 
household cares, and the cultivation of their farms, than 
with the instruction of their little ones. 

We next became acquainted with the number of poor, 
and of the ailing", and with the dissensions and divisions 
which so often distract the people of the same place, and 
sometimes suspend fraternity in families. We dedicate 
a section of our afternoons to visitations of the sick, 
and in many instances, the gates of heaven revolve upon 
their hinges through the sacred aspersive rite to infants, 
who, but for these visits, would have died without it. 
To the spiritual succours we bestow upon the sick, we 
join the solace of the remedies we get from France, 
They are frequently successful, but still more so are our 
efforts in recalling concord to families from which it had 
been exiled. 

The vicinity of certain self-called Christian nations, 
has introduced superstitions and disorders, from which 
it is especially incumbent on the missionaries to disengage 
the people ; one of which comes from their commerce 
with the Druses, whose principle it is to cover the capital 
points of their religion with the veil of silence, and from 
whose contagious example, their neighbours never 
converse on the Catholic religion. Another is the want 
of devotional feelings in the females, especially the 
beautiful, who distinguish themselves, they imagine, 
from the commonality by an absence from the churches, 
except upon the solemn festivals, such as Easter and 
Christmas. Hence they receive no instruction from their 
pastors, who indeed are shamefully indifferent. They 
attend our instructions with the utmost freedom, during 
the continuance of our mission, and profit by them 
however. 



THE COMBAT.- 



61 



Another crying sin, learned from persons who have 
no religion, is the crime of usury ; which, unfortunately, 
is exceedingly commodious. They think that the practice 
is permitted them, because no horror of the sin is exhibited 
by those whose business it should be to prohibit and de- 
nounce it. Usury gives rise to injustice, and sometimes to 
violence ; deplorable effects which the thirst of money 
never fails to produce. With patience, gentleness and 
charity, with fervid and with frequent prayer for the 
assistance of the arm of the Lord, only, may the missionary 
hope for victories over these infernal foes of human felicity. 
Such are the celestial weapons with which we arm us, 
when giving " testimony of the light." For His having 
mingled in the combat, for having descended and shewed 
himself on our side, we return our thanksgivings to the 
Godhead every day without excepting one. Numbers 
of sinners have confessed themselves, and those infallible 
marks of the penitents' contrition, reconciliations, restitu- 
tions, have frequently followed such confessions. Their 
profound devotion at the table of the Lord, excite our 
feelings to such a degree, as despite us, to elicit some 
natural drops from our eyes. 

From such examples, we discern with facility that 
between Catholics and Catholics, there is no small diffe- 
rence, that is, between those who, full of faith, approach 
our mysteries, and those whose faith is cold, and languishing 
to extinction. 

Each mission is concluded by the last-named exercises, 
relinquishing which, we set out for an another. 

It is needless to tell you, my Rev. Father, that the 
regret which we cause in a hamlet when we quit it, can 
be only equalled by the joy elicited by our arrival in the 



62 



THE MISSIONARY. 



next. You yourself have frequently experienced this in 
the missions you have made in your own person in 
Kesroan. 

We have visited Geita, Touy and Keral ; considerable 
places upon Dog's Stream, and when these visits were 
ended, Father Bonamour and I entered on the missions 
of the villages of Cabral, Algitori, &c, which lie 
between Antoura and the Nahr Ibrahim. In all these 
places we had much to do, great opportunities of doing 
good, and very many disorders to correct. 

In order that the fruits of our mission might continue 
to bloom, though the labourers were absent, we estab- 
lished public prayers for the dead in the populous villages: 
we have been taught by experience how salutary are 
such establishments. 

I feel so strong an inclination for the missions of the 
champaign, as to solicit your permission to resume them 
when I return from Jerusalem, to which you allow 
me to repair, to view those sacred monuments which 
were once incarnardine with Jesus' blood. 

In your holy sacrifices be all my sins remembered." 

While giving an account of the missions of the 
champaign, this letter is an eulogy on the zeal, courage, 
and solid piety of the exemplary missionary who 
wrote it ; whose life, like a lamp, was consumed, by the 
light it shed over the savage rocks and rugged recesses 
of Lebanon, for when the pilgrim returned from Jerusalem, 
he came back to Antoura, the object of his affection, 
and without giving a moment to repose, resumed the 
rural missions with more fervency than previously, but 
alas, his strength was not commensurate with his generous 
devotion ; he was fated to succumb. When next we 



f. c. ^eret. 



63 



saw him a fever was preying on his frame ; while diffusing 
life, the missionary had contracted death, a few days 
merely passed over him, then alas ! his footsteps peren- 
nially ceased to be seen. Our mission of x\ntoura, 
which looked upon him as one of those winged messengers 
of God, who sometimes trod the earth in holier times 5 
has embalmed his memory in the innermost shrine of 
the heart ; our tears will long water the palms that grow 
over him. His gentleness, his modesty, his prepossessing 
air, his temper ever equal, his affection for the poor, 
won him golden opinions from every one who knew him; 
the Maronites especially, who never speak of Father 
Neret without tears. Father Gravier, Father Cordier, 
Father Henre went before him, Father Nicholas TrefFons 
followed him, all alike devoted to the Missions of the 
Mountains. W e must admit that these are very hard, 
for in order to arrive there, pathways must be clomb, 
acclivitous and narrow, on winch lie blocks of granite 
of huge dimensions, which completely interrupt those 
mountain passes. When you come before them, you must 
take your shoes off, and mount the masses barefoot to 
have a firmer footing ; in doing which their angles often 
cut the feet, besides you are either burned by the scorching 
sun of summer, or treading on the crunching snows of 
winter, with your chapel on your back, that is, every thing 
necessary for celebrating Mass, and medicines, ehaplets, 
:cc. staff in hand, and laden thus, the missionary pilgrim 
travels frequently from morning to eve, uninterruptedly. 

Having arrived in a village in which a mission is to 
be established, he immediately commences it ; we 
are always welcome among the gentle docile Catholic 
rvlaronites, who love prayer and the word of God. 



64 



THE KEPAST. 



During the mission, the missionary is occupied in 
prayer and exhortation, in giving assistance to the sick, 
and in hearing general confessions. As the rectors 
commonly content themselves with asking at the solemn 
festivals, if the crowd of penitents who present themselves, 
are sorry for their sins, and administer absolution without 
further ceremony, on receiving an affirmative, general 
confessions are extremely necessary. The exercises of 
the morning being finished by a Mass, some one of the 
inhabitants invariably invites us to take our meal with 
him ; in lent this meal is never taken till the sun has set ; 
and frugality presides at the board. Olives, onions, rice, 
and roasted corn, constitute the feast. On state days 
and on solemn occasions, they dine more sumptuously, 
for a dish of oil is added to the meal, in which every 
person present dips his bread, but this is solely on state days 
and solemn occasions ; the bread, by the way, resembles 
pasteboard, it is perfectly flat and very insipid. These 
materials of the feast are placed upon the floor, 
while a carpet or a mat, which lies beneath them, serves 
instead of table, plate, or napkin. Even in the intervals 
between their lents, they do not know what the taste of 
meat is, though it is not by any means prohibited to the 
Maronites ; their wine is good, but it seldom blushes 
at the board. 

Our time is passed in catechising children, holding 
particular conferences, and other missionary duties after 
dinner. Evening returned, we repair to our hosts, where 
we find their friends and families assembled, who expect 
new lectures from the guests, for the Maronites never 
weary of instruction. We draw the matter from the 
ancient Testament, and the lives of Saints whose names 



THE GOOD NIGHT. 



65 



they know. At last, when the day is done, we say a 
public prayer, and every one retires to repose. Inclining 
their persons, and placing their hands upon their heads, 
they extend them to the earth and salute ns in the oriental 
fashion. May a balmy sleep descend to sealyour eye-lids, 
and refresh your frame, ice supplicate the Lord ! may 
your good angel guard you through the night, may the sun 
more brilliant than he ever rose before, ascend the shies 
to-morrow to illume your icay. 

The labour of the day, assuredly, requires the slumbers 
of the night, but a miserable carpet made of goats' hair 
laid upon the floor, being your only bed, incessantly 
disturbed as you are, by the querulous complainings of 
the infants, and the interminable attacks of whole hosts 
of fleas, who mount to the assault incessantly, in such 
incalculable numbers, that such forces met not, nor so 
vast a camp, when Agrican and all his northern powers 
besieged Albracca, as romances tell. Added to all these 
foes of slumber, the smoke of an half extinguised fire, 
roams around a chamber that never knew an aperture, 
seeking whom it may suffocate, which, of course, are 
those who are unaccustomed to it — strangers, visitors, and 
guests. Groaning under all these evils, we yearn for the 
dawn impatiently? when we must resume the labours of 
the mission, and continue them till every village has 
been visited. Though these missions of the mountains 
in the lenten season be excessively fatiguing, I assure 
you, sir, that the disposition of the Maronites is so 
benign, and the fruits that we gather so worthy of the 
seed; as to render our toils not tolerable merely, but 
consolatory. I shall conclude with a history which is 



66 



ROMANCE 



stranger than fiction, which, if we did not know the actors, 
we should never believe. 

The chevaliers of Malta found a young and handsome 
Turk, who was only 13 years of age, and a native of 
Damascus, on board a saique which they had captured ; 
they gave him to a nobleman, who took him home to 
Spain, and so engaging was the blooming infidel, the 
Spanish master conceived an affection for the Turkish 
stripling, he taught him the truths of the Catholic 
religion, and induced him to embrace it. 

Being obliged to serve the Spanish Crown in Flanders, 
the master, some years subsequently, took his young 
convert to the wars ; the virtuous qualities of this young 
man, and those especially which war requires, the latter 
of which were possessed by the youth in an eminent 
degree, caused the Spanish officer at the end of the 
campaign, to request a company of cavalry for this young 
Turk. He succeeded in obtaining it, and the new 
captain, who at this time was five and twenty years of 
age, repaired to the winter quarters of his regiment, 
which happened for that season to be Brussels. 

From the captain's reputation as an officer of merit, he 
w r as received in the best circles in the city with distinc- 
tion. The house of a lady, a widow of much wealth, who 
had come from Amsterdam, her native town, with a 
charming daughter, to pass some time in Brussels, was 
honored in a more especial manner by his visits. 

The mother and the daughter were very pious Catholics: 
pleasure sparkled in their eyes at the visits of this officer, 
whose fascinating manner and elegant demeanour — whose 
politeness, wit, intelligence, and wisdom, first won their 
esteem, and then rivetted their friendship : the ladies knew 
the value set upon him by his brother officers. 



OF REAL LIFE. 



67 



The winter having passed, and the season for active 
service returned, our Turk, who was always considered 
as a Spaniard, thought, from the reception with which he 
had been honored in the widow's house, that he might 
demand the daughter's hand without impropriety. 

Already prepossessed in favour of the chevalier, the 
proffer excited no displeasure in the mother. She imagined, 
from the merit which she knew him to possess, that the 
soldier could not fail to push his fortunes in the service, 
meanwhile his qualities of heart and head, she thought, 
would make her daughter happy. 

These reflections of the mother, and the daughter's 
partiality, made the ladies simultaneously consent to the 
espousals. The marriage was solemnised in Brussels, 
with the approbation of the city. The husband and the 
wife lived ten years together, and only had a single son 
at the end of that period. 

Some time afterwards, the chevalier, Avhether what is 
called the home sickness was preying upon his heart, or 
he had tired of his trade, or was influenced by some secret 
motive, which then it was his interest to hide, he opened 
a desire to his wife, which he said, he fervidly felt, of 
repairing to Jerusalem to visit the sepulchre : he should 
subsequently bring her back to Spain to see his family, 
he said, and shew her certain castles, which, he assured 
her, he possessed in his native land. The young Dutch 
lady, whose affection for her spouse was undiminished, 
consented to the pilgrimage. They resolved to say 
nothing of the subject to any one whatever, more espe- 
cially to the mother, whose acquiescence in a purpose so 
extraordinary was not to be looked for. They contrived 
their embarkation in so secret a manner, in a vessel bound 



68 



ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE. 



for ftaly, that it was only when they were gone that the 
mother was informed of it. 

You may easily suppose that her surprise was extra- 
ordinary. When the lady was first acquainted with the 
circumstance, she repudiated the fact, and refused to 
believe it for a length of time. A strict search was insti- 
tuted at her instigation, but the truth was so obvious in 
the end, as to compel her to admit it. 

While the mother in the Netherlands was weeping for 
her child, the vessel which contained that lady, sailing off 
the coast of Africa, encountered two or three corsairs, 
who attacked it. The Spanish cavalier recognised them 
by their language, and desired, with their leave, to speak 
with the captain who commanded them, never doubting 
but that if they knew his birth he should be civilly received. 
The event answered his expectations ; he shewed the 
rover when he got on board him, that he was anything 
rather than a Spaniard ; he recounted his adventures, and 
imparted his design of returning into Turkey to renew 
the exercise of his religion there in liberty. He conjured 
the captain, at the same time, to assist him to execute his 
purposes. A native of Damascus was, luckily for him, 
on board the Turkish vessel, who knew his family, and 
gave credit to his statements. This was quite sufficient 
to induce the captain to espouse the interests of his 
visitor. He offered to receive him in his ship : the 
difficulty was, to give good reasons to his wife to persuade 
her to consent to this arrangement. He resolved, mean- 
time, to propose it to her, by giving her to under- 
stand that their passage to Jerusalem would be performed 
with more speed on board a vessel of the powers 'of 
Barbary, than in the one of Holland, as the latter should 



THE TURK, 



69 



delay in Italy, while the rover would sail direct for 
Syria. 

Though the project was repugnant to the young Dutch 
lady, she deemed it her duty to commit herself entirely 
to her husband's wisdom, who should know more than she, 

The commander, who had all the mystery of the matter 
in his mind, received the father, the mother, and the infant 
with civility. After sailing for some days, they cast 
anchor at Algiers. The young Dutch lady, who knew 
not the name of this strange place, could not imagine 
where she was, but she was speedily aware that she was 
living among Mussulmen. Though exceedingly surprised^ 
her astonishment was greater at perceiving, as she did, 
that her husband was perpetually among the Turks ; and, 
what was even more extraordinary? was present at their 
prayers. She did not dare at first to communicate her 
trouble to her spouse, believing him a Catholic in heart ; 
but, as she feared, (from his commerce with the Turks.) his 
eventual perversion, she pressed him fervently to quit 
Algiers, the sooner to attain the termination of their pilgri- 
mage Jerusalem ; persuaded, as she was, that her husband 
would be better any other place than there. 

Her spouse, the Spaniard, who, on his side, thought of 
nothing but of shaking off the shackles which Belgium 
had imposed on the free profession of his faith, took 
advantage of the hurry of his wife, to conduct her into 
Turkey in a vessel which was ready to depart for Egypt, 
They embarked together with their infant son ; but with 
very different projects in their breasts. They landed in 
a little time in Alexandria, and her spouse, the Spanish 
captain, who sought to secrete his practices from his lady's 
vigilance, was accustomed to repair in a private manner 



70 



THE SOLDIER'S WIEE. 



to the mosques, and to associate with Mussulmen in 
secret. 

The poor Dutch lady, in spite of the precaution of the 
simulated Catholic, ascertained her husband's conduct 
with horror, astonishment, and grief. Not knowing what 
to think, she had recourse to tears, without presuming to 
reveal the reason of her sorrow. The fictitious Spaniard, 
(whose esteem for his lady's worth was equal to his love for 
her beauty) felt convinced that he could not play the coun- 
terfeit much longer. He sought the means of making the 
discovery for a length of time in vain, though he could not 
disguise from himself the melancholy consequences which 
might follow such a revelation. Happening to come into 
her room one day, he found the sorrow of his lady so 
extreme, her desolation so excessive, 'twas so impossible 
to comfort her, that truth was wrung from his reluctant 
lips ; and he confessed his birth, his religion, the reason of 
his quitting Brussels, and the cause of his imaginary 
voyage to Jerusalem. She should enjoy, wherever they 
sojourned, he assured her, the most unrestricted liberty 
with reference to religion ; that as for him, he should 
never ha^ any other object upon earth except to make 
her existence as happy as the day was long. He should 
find in the land of his nativity the means of making her 
felicitous, as there he should inherit his paternal property. 
His lady listened to these words in silence, for her feelings 
were of such a nature that her tongue refused to speak, 
but we may easily imagine the melancholy images that 
occupied her breast and mind, and each of them sadder 
than its antecedent drowned her in affliction. Banished for 
ever from her native country, the woman of a bearded 
Turk, she was doomed to wear away her life, amid an alien 



THE CHRISTIAN WIFE* 



71 



people, whose repugnant customs and religion, were 
diametrically opposed to all that makes life dear ; in a 
single instant, a thousand ties were severed, that were 
precious as her hearts strings, and her desolate bosom 
bled at every pore 0 

Having passed some days in these heart-ren ding- 
reflections, the best course she thought she could adopt 
in her present situation was, to repose her sorrows on 
the benignant bosom of Eternal Providence, who never 
abandons his creatures when they are faithful to Him 
Full of this reflection, she suffered herself to be entirely 
led by him, who had been hitherto so unfortunate a guide, 
but whose cares became unceasing, to anticipate her wishes 
and to lighten hef chagrin. From Egypt he led her 
into Syria, and thence to Aleppo, where his friends 
resided. 

The story of the spouses had been bruited in Cairo ; 
in the town of Alexandria, they were talked of univer- 
sally, and their story went before them to Aleppo. On 
their entering Aleppo, the citizens assembled to see the 
gentle lady wedded to the Turk, whom she had mistaken 
for a Spanish officer, who had castles of much eminence 
in Spain. The personal merit of this gentle lady, which 
was speedily diffused, excited the compassion of the 
Catholics especially, who rivalled one another in their 
efforts to console her ; her misfortunes, however, were 
not terminated yet. Rumour circulated in Aleppo, that 
the Spaniard was as rich as Croesus, and this was quite 
sufficient to awaken the cupidity of robbers, as they 
termed them, who thirsted for his gold. Let that be as 
it may, it is certain that the Turk was discovered in 
his chamber, a mutilated carcass, and that the perpetrators 



72 



THE CHRISTIAN WIDOW. 



of the murder could never be discovered. Quickly 
acquainted with this new calamity, which filled up the 
measure of her adverse fortune, the affliction of the 
widow was excessive. She saw her infant and herself, 
who were equally defenceless, and equally ignoring what 
in the world should become of them, deprived of all 
subsistence in a country of Turks. But when the tale 
of bricks was doubled, Moses came. Some Maronite 
women who had visited Aleppo, invited her to Libanus, 
to which they were returning ; in a country almost 
altogether Catholic ; they told her she should enjoy the 
exercise of her religion, and there too all her wants should 
be supplied. These hopes in her present situation, 
induced her to go with them. The Maronite women led 
her to the hamlet of Antoura. A widow the best provided 
for of all the villagers, took her to her house, and took 
care of her. 

It was at Antoura that we became acquainted with 
her : her conduct has been always extremely edifying 
and exemplary. In speaking of her misfortunes, she 
expressed such resignation to the will of Heaven as drew 
tears from the eyes of the people who surrounded her. 
Virtues of so rare a character, gained her such golden 
opinions from the Maronites in general, that they rivalled 
one another in endeavouring to render her every service 
in their power, and laboured to make her forget her sad 
adventures. 

One of our missioners was honoured with her confidence, 
who took particular care of the education of her child. 

After the mother and the son had spent some years at 
Antoura, a propitious opportunity presented itself for 
their return to their father land. The lady resolved to 



THE CHRISTIAN WIDOW. 



73 



improve the occasion. Our missionaries, far from 
dissuading her, were aiding in her embarkation on hoard 
a good vessel, persuaded as they were, that in the bosom 
of her family she should find more solace for her indivi- 
dual afflictions, and a better education for her son, than 
in a country in w r hich she was a stranger, and where, in 
spite of all attentions, most of the comforts of European 
life were unattainable. We have had no news of her 
since then, but we have reason to believe that heaven, 
ever faithful to the souls who submit themselves to 
Providence, has brought the friendless mother and her 
infant son to the haven for which the exiles yearned so 
frequently. 

I have related what our archives acquaint us with, 
concerning the establishment of our mission at Antoura. 
We still continue to cultivate this soil, once irrigated 
with the blood of Jesus Christ, with all the consolation 
it is capable of yielding. The contagious malady which 
emptied the principal towns of Provence of our brethren 
of Jesus, when they calmly, fearlessly, and generously 
exposed their lives in the service of the plague-sick, has 
not spared us in the Levant ; their zealous charity? in 
succouring the victims of the plague, hath caused them 
to merit, in many instances, the crown of martyrdom. 
Sir, in sending missioners to every quarter of the 
christian universe, forget not our missions of the Levant, 
those of Syria, and Palestine especially, which were 
infinitely dear to St. Ignatius, and which deserve your 
special protection, were it only upon this account. 

The mission of Damascus, which I have quitted recently, 

so eminently merits my making you acquainted with it, 

a compendious account of the state in which I left it, with 

e 



74 



DAMASCUS. 



the present situation of that great and famous city, cannot 
fail to interest you. The flourishing condition of religion 
in Damascus, in former times, cannot possibly be recalled 
without the bitterest regret ; for alas ! nothing remains 
now but ruins of that greatness ! excepting Jerusalem. 
At the birth of catholicity, it was the first that was watered 
with Christian blood. Thither St. Paul was conveying 
their sentence of proscription, when, suddenly enveloped 
in an effulgence of celestial light, he was hurled prostrate 
on the earth, prone and blind. They shew the locality 
of the fall and apparition, which is very near the city, as 
well as the mansion of the faithful Ananias — the cave to 
which, in time of persecution, he retired — the gate at 
which the evasion of St. Paul was effected by the faithful. 
These can be all pointed out by assiduous ciceroni at the 
present time, These primitive persecutions only heralded 
in the triumphs of religion. Damascus, in succeeding 
ages, became, as it were, the theatre of Christianity, where 
she maintained a lofty attitude with no small glory, till 
those disastrous times, when, fostered by Imperial sun- 
shine, Schism raised its serpent head in her bosom. The 
Arians, the Macedonians, the Nestorians, the Eutychains, 
but Mahometanism above all, dusked the splendor of this 
church, and made its lustre disappear. Nevertheless, 
some gleams of her original radiance continued hanging- 
round her in resplendant festoons in the times of the 
Saracens and of St. John of Damascus. But since the 
Turks obtained the mastery, that is, during the last 200 
years, Damascus has become simply a vast assemblage of 
conflicting sects, raging around — rending religion just 
like so many monsters. The superstition of Mahomet 
is the mcst potent, and most prevalent of these. We 



DAMASCUS. 



75 



may venture to describe it as absorbing all the others ; 
for, favouring as it does the brutal passions of the human 
heart, it is incessantly attracting the severed disciples of 
the schisms which subdivide Christianity in this country. 
Of schismatic Christians, three several nations are recog- 
nised in this place. The Greeks maintain the error of 
Marcus the Ephesian, a follower of Photius ; the Surians, 
that of Dioscorides ; the Armenians, the errors of Nesto- 
rius. Unconducted by the light of true religion as they 
are, at the test of persecution, they all delapse alike into a 
precipice, which is infinitely more frightful than their first 
condition, and passing easily from error into infidelity, 
they join the sectaries of Mahomet ; insomuch, that 
amongst half a million of inhabitants, perhaps ten thousand 
Christians was our utmost number. 

Such was the state of religion in Damascus, when, a 
hundred years ago, our missioners arrived there. Three 
catholic families was all we counted, the Maronites 
excepted, who form a very petty nation, and who have 
always been conformed to the faith of Rome. This was 
not from any want of missioners of zeal. There were 
Cordeliers and Capucins in Damascus, anterior to our- 
selves. But they had not succeeded in extending the 
labours of their mission any farther than the Maronites ; 
they had not, in reality, presumed to undertake it. They 
served in the capacity of rectors to the Maronites, when 
the patriarch was pleased to permit them that privilege. 
We began our toils simply by establishing a public school, 
in which little children are taught, of whom the fathers 
and mothers were in time instructed by their infants, and 
in the course of years profound prejudices, engraved in 



76 



DAMASCUS. 



their heart by their hatred of Franks, insensibly disap- 
peared. 

Human respect, and the dread of persecution, retained 
many in their errors for a length of time, or even caused 
them to apostatise at a period subsequent to their acces- 
sion to the true faith. And it was not until that 
patriarch's days, whom the Grecians call Civile, who 
occupied the office five and thirty years ago, and who 
shewed favour to the Catholics — it was only under the 
government of this person that the Christians began to 
declare themselves decidedly in favour of religion. But 
when this patriarch was dead, and persecutions were 
imposed on the shepherds, one part of the flock was 
scattered, the other compelled to prevaricate. The 
missionaries never discontinued their exhortations to the 
Catholics during those stormy times, sometimes publicly 
and sometimes privately to stand fast and not to stagger 
in the faith. Even to our own times, in which, to our 
surprise, by an order of the Porte which dismissed the 
schismatic, we beheld the prelate of the Catholics elevated 
to the patriarchal see. He only held the seat a single 
month, and even then by proxy. The schismatic received 
a countermand which was precisely opposed to the pre- 
ceding, and by which he was established in Damascus, 
The Catholic patriarch, finding it thus imperative upon 
him to retire, removed to a monastery of Greek religious 
to reside, where, on the mountain of anti-Libanus, near 
Seyde, he continues to abide. 

This novel revolution afforded a convincing argument 
in favour of the schismatic, but triumphant party, in the 
opinion of the weak, by which party the latter were 



DAMASCUS. 



77 



speedily absorbed. Those who remained firm sought 
concealment in their domiciles, where they watched till 
heaven should give to our affairs a more favourable aspect. 
The aid of Heaven was not long withheld. He who 
holds in his hand the hearts of great men, disposed the 
bosom of the bashaw who governs the country in favour 
of the Catholics, as well as of the missioners, insomuch 
that the churches of the latter were permitted to be 
opened, and Christians permitted to frequent them — an 
event perfectly unparalleled ever since the Turks 
obtained dominion of the country. He annulled a con- 
tract, moreover, which was passed by the Catholics in 
spite of them during their incarceration, by which they 
were engaged to give 30,000 crowns as a forfeit for every 
time they should listen to the missionaries. Since that 
time, that is to say, in three years' space, the rapid pro- 
gress of the Catholic religion has been quite incredible. 
I can assure you, in my own regard, that no single year 
hath hitherto elapsed, in which I have not had the conso- 
lation and felicity of seeing a hundred persons, at least, 
returning to the bosom of the truth. Not that we have 
not had to bide the pelting of pitiless storms in the absence 
of the Bashaw ; for, as four months at least are annually 
spent by him in conducting the caravan of pilgrims to 
Mecca, this time was always employed in periodically 
persecuting us. But we have emerged with victory from 
these difficulties, in consequence of the measures we 
adopted. 

The species of persecution inflicted on the Christians, 
by the Mussulmen, is neither death nor torment, so much 
as pecuniary penalties, which they please to call Avanies. 
When Christians are accused with reference to religion, 



78 



DAMASCUS. 



r tis a custom here to seize and bastinado such personages 
as happen to be paramount amongst the countrymen of 
the accused, a contribution is then required of them, which 
is impartially and strictly levied upon all the nation, 
whether they be Syrians, or Greeks, or what you wilh 
For some consecutive years, when the Bashaw had 
departed on his pilgrimage to Mecca, they invariably 
accused the Catholics of having become Francs, and of 
praying with the latter, and so enormous an avanie was 
imposed upon the Catholics in consequence, that the state 
of indigence to which it reduced them, was absolutely 
more appalling than death. In order to remedy so great 
an evil, I had the honour of writing to his Excellency 
the French Ambassador, requesting his protection of the 
persecuted Catholics, as well as that he by his influence 
at the Porte, might procure us an order, by which, not 
the Catholics alone, but that all Christians indiscriminately, 
might be the subjects of all such future avanies, as it 
should please them to impose on us. His Excellency 
was pleased to promise in the answer with which he 
honoured me, that with reference to the Bashaw, no 
stone should be left unturned, which possibly could bring 
my project into operation, and that he should second his 
petition, with a present of a nature which was very 
likely to insure success. 

The schismatics, according to their custom, having a 
little after accused the Catholics of being Francs, an 
avany amounting to many purses,* was imposed upon the 
latter. 'Twas then in pursuance of my project, that I 
prevailed upon the principals to require that this fine 



* £62 10s. constitute a purse. 



DAMASCUS, 



79 



should be indiscriminately levied upon all the Christians, 
since after all, no difference is ever made between Christian 
and Christian by the Turks, who, as to whether you be 
Syrian, or Frank, Catholic, or Greek, put no interroga- 
tories. In this way the schismatics have been disarmed 
of the instrument they used so frequently, and with so 
much success, to injure and impede the Catholics. We 
anticipate the continuous subsistance of this law, at least 
as lon^ as the administration of the present Bashaw shall 
endurt. 

Befr ended by a rule so pacific and auspicious, we 
exercise our ministry, we preach in our church, and 
celebrat* our sacred mysteries within it, not only as we 
do in Tiipoly, or in Said, in which we are protected by 
the Gonalon of France, but precisely as we should 
perform hem at Paris, hence like water from a well, 
it flows a a necessary consequence that schismatics are 
converted and the sacraments received — hence, public 
and privae instructions are bestowed, producing wonder- 
ful effects n hearts that hunger for the word of God. 

At our ermons and at the explanations we give them 
of the Gos>el, how often do we see them moved by a 
touching w>rd to tears ; how much are we affected in 
hearing thai so frequently striking their bosoms and 
sobbing diring Mass, especially at the consecration, 
and at the ommunion of the Priest. The schismatics 
themselves, who are sometimes present, are frequently 
affected to onversion. Should these happy times continue 
for a few yars more, the few rebels who remain will be 
unable to rtist us. But in cultivating a mission such 
as this, thi labours and the cares incumbent on the 
missioners re indescribable ; resolving the important 



80 



DAMASCUS* 



questions with which the Catholics continually ply them, 
instructing and refuting the heretics, causing to come to 
an amicable end those various lawsuits, which are some- 
times agitated amongst the faithful, and in which they will 
take no judges but ourselves, hearing the general con- 
fessions of the converts during the course of the week, 
and the confessions of the ethers the live-long day, on 
the eves of sabbaths and of festivals. Such is an 
abridgment of labours, which keep the missionary's mind 
for ever on the stretch. The mission of Damascus is 
peculiarly painful, because without counting the Csfcholies, 
who are good souls, crowds are continually coning in 
from their want of missioners at home, from the villages 
and towns in the vicinity. 

In giving a succinct description of Damascus I shall 
content myself with telling you, that it is quit/ as large 
as Paris, and the third city in the Turkish povinces ; 
perhaps it would be wealthier still, were it mder the 
dominion of a Christian king ; it has several iiosques of 
surprising beauty, above all one surpassing all he others, 
and quite amazing for its magnitude, which is crnamented 
magnificently with marble of a snowy whifeness, and 
which was erected by the early Christians ; t was the 
metropolitan church originally. 

The situation of Damascus is perhaps one f the finest 
in the world. The city rises in a noble plan, sloping 
sufficiently to give its pellucid waters currenc*. And so 
abundant is this limpid water, that we may aer, no city 
in the world is better watered than Damascus. A 
chrystal fountain mingles with the glisteningjtream, that 
descending from the neighbouring mountain^ enters the 
plain, in that part which lying towards tW rising sun, 



DAMASCUS. 



Si. 



is lost in the remote horizon. This confluence of waters 
constitutes a river. Where this enchanting plain com- 
mences, Damascus elevates its pinnacles. Pausing* before 
it ventures to the town, the nohle river is separated into 
seven branches, one of which accommodates the city, 
the others irrigate the plain. 

When I first saw the spot from which the river dira- 
mifies, I was stricken with astonishment : viewing the 
solidity and art which the work exhibits, I was ravished 
into admiration. 

But of all the people I interrogated, there was no 
one that could inform me as to the period, or the person 
by whom this marvel was constructed. By means of 
this, so copious quantity of water, every abode is abun- 
dantly supplied ; it is so husbanded too, that from the 
bosom of resplendent basins, like columns of silver it 
shoots up in a thousand glistening fountains, in the 
interior and exterior of the several dwellings. It was 
requisite to construct subterraneous canals, at incalculable 
cost, to conduct it to the different departments of the 
town. These canals, if we may so express ourselves^ 
are covered roads of sufficient magnitude, to suffer two 
or three persons to walk side by side. 

The other rivers which wind in semicircles through 
the plain, irrigate a world of orchards, so profuse of 
fruit, that no where is the quantity more abundant, no 
where can the quality be more delicious. 

A Christian cannot possess a single inch of earth 
throughout this vast, this magnificent campaign. His 
solitary resource is in his industry, in carrrying on com- 
merce, and in manufacturing silks : with reference to 

this, the Turks are accustomed to reason very seriously, 

e 5 



82 



DAMASCUS. 



we do not suffer you, they tell the Christians, to possess 
any landed property whatever,* one third of your time 
is consumed in festivals and sabbath-days, on which you 
never labour ; we compel you ? excluding the avanies, 
to pay large sums of money for permission to make 
wine, as well as for the great privilege enjoyed by you, 
of praying in a church. In spite of the pains which we 
take, with regard to you, your houses are as good, your 
diet is as excellent, and your garments perhaps are more 
sumptuous than ours, yet we pay no taxes and have 
landed property, and but one or two festivals that interrupt 
our labours ; how in the world is this miracle effected ! 

The only answer that the Christians give them is, that 
an overwatching providence is the giver of increase, 
That the Master whom we have the felicity of serving 
is emphatically a good Master, who even in this world, 
often recompences us for such tribulations as we endure 
for him. 

* A century ago, the Catholics of Ireland were similarly circum* 
stanced. 



SKETCHES 

OF A 

JOURNEY TO MOUNT LIB ANUS, 

SENT TO FATHER FLEURIAU. 



My Rev. Father, — I do myself the honour of sending 
to you now the account which you required of my journey 
to Mount Libanus. Other missioners of ours, I know 
full well, previously performed the journey, who, doubt- 
less, did not fail to send you a recital. My desire to do 
you pleasure, makes me heartily hope that they omitted 
some particulars which you may find in the following. 
Be that as it may, my obedience will plead with you, and 
quite extenuate my want of merit. 

Accompanied by Father Bonamour, your correspon- 
dent quitted Tripoli the 13th of October. Three Maro- 
nites from Mount Libanus conducted us, and for four 
successive days we continually advanced, till, on the vigil 
of the fifth, we arrived by the moonlight at the foot of 
Mount Libanus. 'Twas 10 o'clock at night when we 
entered a village denominated Argos, situated at six 
leagues distance from the cedars. We were obliged to 
pass the night upon an earthen floor, incessantly assailed 
by a keen wind, extremely strong and bitter, which came 
through the interstices of a cabin, or rather cage, com- 
posed of reeds. We resumed our route two hours before 



84 



MOUNT LIB ANUS* 



the dawn. The road selected by our leaders was full of 
inequalities, in which our progress was little, our labour 
great. 

We were passing by a village entitled Antourn, when 
the lord of the village, who had seen us at a distance, 
invited us to dine with him : half a league from his house, 
we repented our refusal. Gelid showers of icy rain, the 
coldest and most copious we had ever witnessed, accom- 
panied by hail and rolling thunder, poured upon us for 
two continuous hours, during which we could find nothing 
like a refuge to shield us from its violence. 

Our clothes were penetrated instantaneously. We 
plunged, at every pace, into mud that rose above our 
knees, or were compelled to ford the mountain ravines, 
in which the rapid torrents, descending with impetuosity, 
threatened our destruction every instant, as we strug- 
gled with their fury, just like so many feeble reeds. 
The rain, which composed a river at our feet, was con- 
verted into snow upon the neighbouring mountains. 
After enduring inexplicable fatigues, we came at length 
to the Carmelite convent of Marserkis. In that deplorable 
condition, whatever we required was cordially supplied to 
us, and you may conceive how acceptable such succour must 
have been in a plight so pitiable as ours. It stands at 
the foot of a rock which rises above it to a height so 
frightful, that no human foot has ever pressed its apex ; 
the eagles or vultures that retire to its recesses or sail 
round its stupendous altitude being the only animals 
that rise so high. Grottoes have been burrowed in the 
basis of this rock, and these constitute a portion of the 
monastery. Nature and art combine to make this 
monastery commodious. Imagine our being led into a 



MOUNT UBANUS. 



85 



round little bedroom, of which the concave ceiling was 
the solid stone forming the foundation of the peak. 
The chapel is a grotto of considerable size, which, though 
fashioned by the hand of nature, is as perfect as if 
chiselled by some skilful excavator. An ever-flowing 
fountain of the purest water which issues from the rock 
after passing through all offices that need the lymph 
w r aters a garden of legumes. A sojourn in Marserkis is 
delicious in summer, six months in the year are 
spent there by the Carmelites ; but the snows and winds 
that come pouring from Mount Libanus make the winter 
so insupportable, that those gentlemen retire at the 
first appearance of frost, remaining in Tripoli till Easter. 

We were conducted next day to the cedars of Mount 
Libanus. As, after the recent rains, the roads w r ere 
indifferently dried, we had some difficulty in traversing 
the league that separates Maserkis from the cedars, w T hich 
we could see at a distance. 

We contemplated them at leisure. The cedars stand 
upon a little mountain, w r hose summit is a plain of consi- 
derable extent. This plain is crowned by domineering 
mountains which ascend above its head, hoar and lofty, 
and covered with snow to the skies. 

The cedars celebrated amongst all mankind, stand upon 
the plain in considerable number. Of this grand family, 
more of the members are young and small, than great and 
ancient : I counted but a dozen of extraordinary bulk ; we 
measured the most thick ; we embraced their rugged 
rind six times ; their circuit was equivalent to six times 
the measure of our horizontal arms. Imagine their enormous 
magnitude ! some, having grown a little from the ground, 
had then branched into five or six stupendous trees, so great 



86 



MOUNT LIBANUS. 



in girt two men could scarce embrace them. But when 
these trees, a forest in themselves, form a junction at 
their summits, the enormous extent occupied by their 
capacious boughs is surprising. Their gigantic elevation 
is proportioned to their breadth. Some of those travellers, 
who take such care to grave their name in every place 
they visit, have made great incisions on the larger cedars. 
A salutary balm in the form of gum, which is very effica- 
cious in the drying of wounds, exudes ftom these incisions* 

At the foot of the largest of the cedars embrowned by 
the shadow of its foliage, four altars are perceived of 
massive stone. On the day of the transfiguration of the 
Lord, attended by a train of bishops, priests, and monks, 
and perhaps 6,000 Maronites, the patriarch is seen 
repairing to this place to celebrate " the feast of the 
cedars." Though this feast is celebrated by the Maro- 
nites on the day of the transfiguration of the Lord, it by 
no means follows as a consequence, that the Maronites 
believe, as some presume to tell us, that it was on their 
mountain that our Saviour was transfigured. Its expressly 
asserted in their office for the day, that the scene of that 
marvel was Mount Thabor. That very erroneous notion 
originated in Thabor's connection with a family of moun- 
tains, which all possess a common name, viz. Libanus, 
and anti-Libanus= 

You may see the mountains of Libanus extending 
from the side of the sea to the sources of the Jourdan : 
you find them stretching from Carmel, as you travel on 
till they sink into a flat at two days journey from Damas- 
cus. The mountain chain of Anti-Libanus advances 
farther inland ; it is divided from that of Libanus by a 
flat, extensive plain, which begins at the Balbeck side, 



MOUNT LIBANUS. 



87 



at two days journey from Damascus. The acclivities of 
Anti-Libanus receive this appellation, because the kindred 
chains confront each other, and the latter appears to con- 
template the opposite. 

The air that circulates upon the plain upon which those 
giant cedars tower, is so cold and venomous, that no one 
ever is tempted to fix their residence upon it ; and yet 
its situation is really enchanting. It is covered with a 
mantle of medicinal herbage, and there may the traveller 
cull the rarest simples. 

Game of every kind is common there, the most for- 
midable foe that wide wilderness — that mute and unpeo- 
pled solitude affords, is the vulture, and the voracious 
birds which are a kin to it. The grateful earth would 
be fertile, were it cultivated. A species of bush, pro- 
ducing a black barberry of very pleasant flavour, abounds 
upon the mountain. 

Libanus was at one time clothed with aspiring cedars. 
However, you will not find any at the present day except 
on the plain which I have spoken of, and on another 
mountain which is near Cannobin. All joiners' work 
is made of cedar-wood in Libanus, the operatives of the 
place are very skilful workmen. The succeeding day we 
left the monastary of Marserkis to go about a league to 
that of Marelicha. The vicar and two others of the 
monks attended us. The monastery of Marelicha, that 
is, of Eliseus, is situated at the foot of a tremendous 
mountain, and on the margin of a river entitled Nahr 
Gadischa, or the sacred river. It flows through a very 
narrow valley of exceeding depth, whose sides are orna- 
mented with tall pines and gigantic oaks and vines, in 
the depth of whose recesses you may see the rapid waters 



88 



MOUNT UBANUS. 



glistening like shining ebony. At 30 paces from this 
river, you see on either side a chain of mountains rise 
which form tremendous masses of naked rocks. 

The interior of these mountains have been hollowed, 
by the hand of nature, into caves of unknown capacity — 
cells of solitary Cenobites at one time, who chose these 
arid rocks, here ascending so sublimely in their naked- 
ness, as the only worldly witnesses of virtue which was 
almost unparalleled, and the uninterrupted rigour of 
perennial penance. The tears of these sequestered saints, 
which have mingled so often with its waters, have given 
to the river which we have been speaking of the title of 
the holy river. Its source is situated in the mountains 
of Libanus. When looking at these caves, and this river, 
making its way for ever glistening and gliding through the 
desert like some sable serpent, feelings of compunction 
fill the soul — a secret love of penitence is inspired insen- 
sibly, as well as of compassion for those sensual souls, 
who, for a few delusive joys, for some feverish transports 
for fairy wealth, exchange their sterling gold, the glorious 
" birthright of their hopes in Heaven." 

The superior of the monastery of Elizeus received us 
in a manner the most cordial. The monastery consists of 
20 Maronites. They were the only persons that we met 
with that deserved the appellation of religious. 

They were established here by a pious priest, named 
Abdulus, five and twenty years ago — a person parti- 
cularly assiduous in consulting Father Nicolas Bazire, 
as to the form, constitution, and conduct of this society. 
He was their first superior. He was taken from his 
monastary and consecrated bishop, in opposition to his 
own desire. Our mission of Antoura is established in his 



MOUNT 1IBANUS. 



89 



diocese. His successor in his monastery is Father Gabriel, 
a man of the utmost modesty, as well as the greatest 
piety. He is universally esteemed and honored by Turks, 
Greeks, and Maronites, in consequence of his profound 
intimacy with Arabic. 

In this monastery of Maronites, the noviceship is two 
years in length ; flesh is never eaten by the inmates, who 
are very poorly dressed ; they chant the office in the noon 
of night, and pass the greater portion of the day upon 
the fresh and sunny mould, engaged in the wholesome 
labours of the husbandman. An account of their con- 
science is given their superior evening and morn diur- 
nally. They observe their rules with unabated rigour, 
and, above all, maintain unbroken silence and perpetual 
fast. Except their brothers of the cloister, they seldom 
see a human being. The foot of a female has never 
passed the threshold of their church. If any of the 
inmates happen to relax in this penitential life, and give 
the lie to his vocation, he is at once advised by the abbot 
to retire, though the years of his profession were a dozen. 
The superior can give a dispensation for conventual 
vows. 

We departed with our guides on the morning of the 
20th, to proceed to Cannobin, two leagues from the 
monastery of Eliseus. We saw, upon our route, the 
remains of many monasteries, which Cenobites inhabited 
in anterior times, and which, deserted by the monks, 
have been ruined by the Metouali, who are a sect of 
heretical Mahometans. 

Many of these mouldering ruins are perched upon the 
summit of steep and lofty rocks, at such an alarming 
elevation, that you cannot comprehend the possibility of 



90 



MOUNT LIB ANUS. 



reaching them. We entered a chapel chiseled in the 
rock, which had been excavated very skilfully, and in 
which two altars stood. An image of the Virgin stood 
on the one, on the other was an image of Saint Antony. 
We saw some desert cells beside the chapel, in which the 
situation of the Cenobites must have been very incom- 
modious. At the foot of these mountains, flows the holv 
river ; its greatest length is little more than 1 8 miles. 

The patriarch of the Maronites resides at Cannobin. 
They received us with the utmost hospitality. The monks 
are fetv in number, and indifferently lodged, and still 
greater poverty appears in their clothes and mode of life. 
The patriarch lives with some Maronite bishops, and with 
the monks of the house, in the greatest harmony, and 
with a simplicity and purity of manners perfectly exem- 
plary. The slightest faults are punished with severity. 
Strangers are received in a most charitable manner, from 
a spirit of hospitality, with all this poverty ! The 
patriarch was clothed in a scarlet-coloured habit, which 
was turned up with fur, under which he wore a purple 
soutane : a dress that was remarkable for nothing but its 
modesty. 

The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary ; its age, 
the patriarch informed us, was fourteen centuries. The 
church is a tremendous cave which has been decorated 
and devoted to the service of religion. It is adorned 
with pictures of different qualities. The patriarch 
pointed out to our attention, as we loitered through 
them, the portraits of Innocent the Eleventh and Louis 
the Fourteenth. We recited the nocturnal office in the 
choir, as well as the office for the day, which was said by 
the sodality with much seeming unction. Their liturgy 



MOUNT LIB AN US. 



91 



is very ancient. It is written in Syrian, or ancient 
Syriac, and a very little part in Arabic, which is trans- 
cribed in Syriac characters, denominated Kerchora. The 
cells of the monks are grottoes near the church. The 
Brothers are exposed to the inclemencies of the seasons, 
in passing, as well in summer as in winter, from their 
grottoes to their church. The patriarch led us to a room 
designated the Chamber of the Jesuits. These Jesuits 
were three, Fathers John Baptiste Elien, John Bruno, 
and Jerome Dandini. The two first were sent by the 
13th Gregory, to make the Maronites receive the decrees 
of the Council of Trent, and Clement 8th despatched the 
third to make the bishops, priests and patriarch, assembled 
in a synod, renounce the errors of a schismatical council. 
The Council of Trent was accordingly received, and the 
schism was proscribed. During our sojourn, we were 
always honoured by an invitation, on the part of the 
patriarch, to dine with the religious and himself. Fru- 
gality was perfectly observed on these occasions. 
Legumes prepared in oil, beet roots, salt fish, and dry 
discoloured bread, composed the dinner that they gave 
us ; but their wine was of a quality so excellent, that no 
better can be made in France. 

The Patriarch pressed us earnestly, employing many 
arguments, to induce us to remain some time longer in 
his monastery, but, the day of our departure being 
determined on, after saying the nocturnal office with the 
choir, and celebrating mass, we took our leave of him. 
We had the honour of receiving from the patriarch his 
own peculiar ornaments, which, indeed, are exceedingly 
becoming. We besought his benediction, and departed. 

He gave us his deacon as a guide, for the roads are 



92 



MOUNT LIBANUS. 



very difficult to follow. At a little distance from the 
monastery, we visited a chapel dedicated to St. Marina. 
Filled as it is with the odour of her sanctity, the deepest 
veneration is retained, and indeed diffused, through the 
surrounding country by the memory of this virgin. 

No one entertains the slightest doubt in this plate as 
to the circumstances of her life. Inspired by heaven, as 
historians tell us, the virgin enveloped her beauty in a 
cowl, and completely concealed her sex in the coarse 
weeds of a monastic. Girded in this rude habit, the 
beautiful recluse devoutly served her Saviour for succes- 
sive years in austerity and penitence. She was accused 
of an intrigue with a female in the neighbourhood, and 
condemned to suffer the severest penalty by her supe- 
rior's sentence, and in that cave, too, which is now a 
chapel dedicated to her memory. But that highly- 
exalted, uncreated, and benignant Being whom she 
served, as alone supremely worthy of her adoration, who 
always condescends to look with an interested eye upon 
his servants, made her innocence, when she sunk into the 
slumber of the grave, as obvious as the day-star when he 
sinks to the horizon, and distinguished her virtues even in 
this world by the miracles operated at her tomb. 

Having offered up our prayers at this venerated shrine, 
we set forward for St. Anthony, which is at two leagues 
distance from Cannobin. We ascended and descended 
a mountain, the most rugged I ever had encountered 
while traversing these intervening leagues. St. Anthony's 
priory stands upon the coast beside a high perpendicular 
acclivity. At this time, thirty Cenobites were living in 
the house, similar in every sense to those whom I have 
described so recently. Abdulus, the bishop, who, before 



MOUNT LIB ANUS. 



93 



his episcopacy, was their founder and their first superior, 
received us with the utmost kindness. That prelate 
leads the life of a saint in this establishment ; his lodgings 
are as humble as the simplest religious, and, though the 
life of his monastics is sufficiently austere, the bishop 
lives with even more austerity than they do. His only 
distinction is the colour of his dress, which is invariably 
violet. 

He kept us in the monastery two successive days, that 
we might see the house and environs more completely. 
This convent consists of two separate divisions, and the 
distance that divides them is by no means inconsiderable. 
Each division has its church, but of these the greater is 
selected when they celebrate the office ; in either church 
its neatness is its only ornament. We were conducted 
by the prelate to some caves in the vicinity, which are all 
so many chapels. One, surpassing all the others for its 
beauty and extent, is dedicated to St. Michael. Three 
altars stand within it, and for those two religious men 
who minister at them, there are two little chambers con- 
tained within the cave. On the face of that mountain 
which is opposite these grottoes, you see the openings of 
others, where two hermits lead a solitary life, who never 
quit these caves, nor speak a word to any one, unless 
haply to the prior, when opening their consciences to his 
inspection diurnally. 

No one can be possibly more edified than I was by 
the sublime series of pious acts which I had seen the 
religious of this monastery perform. And now, having 
spent two days in this establishment, I took my leave of 
Bishop Abdulus, who gave me what was indispensable, a 
guide ; for, without a guide in mountains edged with 



94 



MOUNT LIBANUS, 



precipices of the height I had to cross, it would have been 
impossible to arrive by unknown roads at Argos. 

Tripoli, the termination of my journey, is only at the 
distance of four leagues from Argos. The space that 
separates them is a uniform plain of decidedly the most 
agreeable description, crowned with graceful olives and 
with groups of trees of many different species. At length, 
I happily arrived at Tripoli, from which I had set out. 
In Tripoli, thank heaven for the favour, I immediately 
resumed the exercises of our missions; for, at present, 
contagious diseases increase our occupations. The inse- 
parable peril of employments, such as theirs, has no terror 
whatsoever for the high and heroic courage of our mis- 
sioners. One would be ashamed to fail in imitating them. 
As we are continually in need of the heavenly assistance, 
we hope that when diurnally you offer the immaculate 
oblation, you supplicate heaven in behalf of us. 



A LETTER FROM ALEPPO 

ON THE RAMADAN, 

WITH TRAITS OF THE TRAVELS OF THE WRITER. 



My Rev. Father, — I find it obligatory upon me to 
make you acquainted with all such curious and remarkable 
occurrences as I happen to encounter in the countries I 
shall traverse. I have laid down the following plan, in 
order to fulfill my obligations. I shall be contented with 
examining attentively the positions of the places, the 
situation of the cities, the changes -in the atmospheric 
temperature, while merely travelling, but, once become 
permanent, resident, and stationary any where, the 
manners of the people, the customs of the country, all 
that relates to religion more particularly, become my 
objects for especial study. Any hours of idleness which 
my more essential duties may leave me, are completely 
occupied by such a study, a study in my esteem which is 
not unworthy of a missioner. As you are at once a 
Frenchman and a Jesuit, you cannot fail to feel pleased 
in reading my recital. Foreign manners in juxtaposi- 
tion with the manners of the French, afford a contrast 
which is excessively flattering to France, and when con- 
trasted w r ith her rivals, our holy religion invariably tri- 
umphs, as she always derives new splendour from this 
parallel or this contrast, as we should call it, so glorious 
to her sanctity. In my narrative I shall mention nothing 



96 



WHITE THREAD. 



which I have not seen, and with your permission I shall 
close this letter with a few adventures which shall shew 
you the extravagancies of superstition, and the patience 
which the missionary must employ in dealing with its 
partizans. They will fill you full of pity, for the mise- 
rable condition of Christianity in Asia, and for the melan- 
choly fate of so many souls, who with the best disposi- 
tions in the world, perish daily for the want of help. I 
shall commence by instituting a comparison between the 
Turkish and the Christian lents, and the Turkish and the 
Christian Easter. 

The Grand Ramadan, or Turkish Lent, is a solemn 
religious observance, which the Koran prescribes. It 
continues for a month, or a moon, to use the language 
of the country. It excites no surprise that Mahomet 
instituted this observance, tinctured with the Christian 
religion as he was. False religions do themselves the 
honour of imitating the true, at least in some particulars. 
The season selected for the fast is generally the winter, 
you will ultimately see the reason. This year they 
selected in Aleppo, the moon of January. They fired 
four canon from the castle, at 3 in the afternoon, the 
moment the moon of December disappeared, to apprise 
the Mussulmen that the Ramadan began next day. They 
fast as follows : to eat, to drink, or smoke tobacco, is 
prohibited from the hour in the morning in which you 
can distinguish a white thread from a black thread, until 
after sun down. This circumstance of the white and 
black thread, taken literally, gives great advantage to 
the purblind people, compared to those whose sight is 
faultless, of which they do not scruple to avail themselves. 
As soon as the sun is down, the Marabouts, whose 



MOON-LIT RAMBLES. 



97 



business it is, from the summit of the minarets to call 
the Mussulmans to prayer, and whose voices serve 
instead of bells in Turkey, utter frightful cries, from 
their elevated stations. Every soul in the city at this 
signal, resumes his pipe and commences eating. This 
first repast succeeding sun-set, is commonly a light 
collation ; assemblies succeed and promenades, and diver- 
sions of every description. The streets are filled with 
people, a general illumination follows, the gates of the 
city are lying open, and as they imagine that every 
thing is permitted them, because they fast, many disorders 
seemed to be sanctioned by this penitence. Insomuch 
that the Christians commonly remark, that in the Ramadan 
the Mussulmen are mad, and the former are then more 
than ever on their guard, to avoid all collision with the 
Turks, believing if they suffered any evil at their hands, 
that they should have very little chance of justice* 

After rambling through the city in the moon light, 
they eventually return to their houses and sumptuously 
banquet, and hold high festival for some hours before 
the white thread can be distinguished from the black one. 
The viands on their board combine delicacy with abun- 
dance : The Mahometans reserve their most delicious 
meats for the period of the Ramadan ; you needs must 
grant me, that this is a very pleasant mode of keeping 
Lent. When you ask a MussuMian why he eats 
such exquisite and costly viands, " 'tis because Fni 
fasting, he exclaims, " Were not the season penitential, 
I'd have frugal fare when day is dawning and the feast 
is done, they go to sleep, not indeed in the interior of 
their houses, but recumbent upon divans that are laid 
before their doors, that the world may perceive how 



98 



THE CADI. 



penitent they are, and unless very urgent business break 
their slumbers, they are seldom seen in public till the 
afternoon ; thus the rigour of their penitence consists in 
turning day into night, and in feasting on the richest 
viands. You know many men in Europe who practice 
this austerity the whole year round, but who, unlike 
the Turks, seldom seek to sanctify themselves by such 
observances. 

Our fasters of the Levant take no small pains to main- 
tain the most frightful mask of severity, and melancholy : 
they walk with a grave pace, with dejected extenuated 
rueful visages, to which they can give the necessary 
cast with great facility, for in such grimaces the most 
aukward Asiatic is certain to succeed. To compliment 
them then upon their good complexion, or improved 
appearance, would be dreadfully offensive ; they seem 
doggedly determined to appear devout, no matter what 
it may cost. 

Justice is never worse administered than during Lent, 
offences are attended with impunity in the Ramadan. 
Having suffered an assault, if you summon the offender, 
if you denounce and accuse him to the Cadi, that 
equitable judge replies, he struck you, but poor fellow,, 
dont you see he is fasting, look at his visage, it is 
pitiable, the slightest punishment would cause his death ; 
this fasting enfeebles the body and the soul: for my own 
part I have ceased to be myself, the inanition of the 
stomach worketh madness of the brain ; this defendant 
was insane when he treated you in this way. What will 
you have me do with him ; you yourself may be the 
judge, you see he is without strength, and scarce capable 
of standing ; justice would visit him at present in the 



THE CADI. 



99 



shape of destruction , it would be criminal." The accuser, 
if a Christian, pretends to be persuaded by these reasons, 
and if he be unsatisfied by this procedure, he has at 
least the comfort of complaining : if the plaintiff be a 
Mussulman, the reasonings of the Cadi bring conviction 
to the hearer, who plays in this very pretty comedy the 
part of faster. It is thus that law suits terminate in 
these penitential times, and they terminate in tins way 
in those instances especially in which the defendant 
contrives to cause a sum of money to pass unobserved 
into the judge's hands ; this excites his compassion for 
his feebleness unfailingly. Persons sometimes appear 
before the tribunal, however, whose tempers are so 
stormy that they cannot be convinced by the reasonings 
of the Cadi, but who are doggedly determined on 
obtaining satisfaction proportioned to the injury; but 
these impracticable people seldom bless their bargain, of 
which there was an instance in the last Ramadan. 

A Mussulman arraigned a co-religionist, from whom 
he had received a serious affront, before a public tribunal. 
The judge who was corrupted had a tendency to clemency, 
and to have some authority for sheltering the criminal, 
whom he was resolute to save, he made great use of the 
reasons which the fast afforded. The plaintiff turned a 
deaf ear to these arguments, however. He pertinaciously 
persisted in repeating that the criminal was able to sustain 
the punishment deserved, he grew warm with his subject, 
his voice grew louder, he spoke with fire, vivacity, and 
energy. The Cadi, who at first was entirely at a loss 
for some reasonable argument to oppose to so much 
logic, adopted a singular but effective method of attack. 
" Your lungs are very strong," he ultimately replied 



100 



THE CADI. 



addressing the plaintiff very coolly, " you dont seem to 
fast ; at least you hardly keep the fast as well as we do, 
since you speak so vociferously and evince so little of 
the feebleness which oppresses the defendant : so saying, 
he caused him to be laid upon his belly and beaten on 
the feet, as a heinous violator of Mahometan command- 
ments, in having failed to observe the Grand Ramadan, 
There was very little justice in the judge's arguments, 
but then he was imperative, and the accuser could only 
answer by his cries. 

These thirty days of penitence are followed by three 
days of festival, which are announced, like the others, by 
four cannon shots. You may see these turbaned peo- 
ple, on the vigil of the festival, that is, on the last evening 
of lent, employed in the bazaars and public places, in 
setting up divans and in covering them with brilliant- 
coloured carpeting and cushions. Recumbent upon these 
they eat in public — recumbent upon these they receive 
their visitors, and calmly contemplate the attitudes of 
those who figure upon ropes, an amusement, which, from 
its popularity, eclipses every other. There is one very 
pleasant circumstance connected with these feats, which 
is, that you pay nothing for beholding them ; besides, the 
spectator may become an actor, i. e. you may purchase 
the permission of performing in your turn by the payment 
of a little coin. 

Two Turks are seen coming forward to the centre of 
the arena; they support a man upon their shoulders, 
whom they deposit in a seat, which has three corners ; 
this triangle swings suspended from the dome by twelve 
ropes, four at every corner. The moment that it begins 
to move upward, sonorous trumpets sound, and other 



THE FESTIVAL. 



101 



instruments of music play, which, mingled with the rolling 
of the drums forming the base of the music, accompany 
this ascension. Amid tins melody, the man ascends in a 
few minutes to the very vault, which is as high as the 
roofs of the loftiest cathedrals in France. Those who 
have most agility and hardihood, by stretching forth their 
feet in this position grasp the ropes that extend across 
the dome. They let themselves down from their elevated 
seat, and swing by their hands from those lofty cords, 
where they twist and turn for some time, and then, by 
the assistance of some other ropes, slowly descend unto 
the earth : the music ceases the moment they alight, and 
the people testify their approbation by clapping univer- 
sally. There are less elevated places for those that have 
less strength and courage. It only costs the third of a 
piastre or something less than ten pence English, to shew 
one's self in public this way. An aga presides, by whom 
the money is received. Such are the amusements of the 
more mature, from which the young are not excluded, 
though the striplings have peculiar pleasures. Imagine 
for a moment an enormous wheel, so extensive, that it 
fills the edifice, being on]y a foot from the ceiling in the 
highest place and a foot from the floor where it is lowest, 
being placed perpendicularly. An infinitude of seats are 
attached to its circumference; which are filled with a 
multitude of boys and girls. Imagine the mighty revo- 
lutions of this wheel, which goes round with astonishing 
rapidity, conveying the chairs which are so suspended as 
always to maintain their perpendicular, now up on one 
side and now down upon the other, with the children now 
passing along the loft and now sweeping along the floor, 
now under the feet and anon at the very summit of all 



102 



GAMES. 



the others. Besides these chairs, there are certain little 
towers composed of horizontal planks which tnrn on a 
pivot. In these little towers, or, more graphically, churns, 
as in so many nests, the children are placed who are less 
than ten, who, while peeping from their churns, pass 
quickly in review before the assembly. This is the 
principal employment of the Mussulmans from 8 in the 
morning till 10 o'clock at night, during the three days 
which constitute the Turkish easter. The everlasting 
hum of such a multitude of people, with their shouts, 
cries, and exclamations, the creaking, groaning, straining 
of the vast machines, hammocks, wheels, and ropes, 
heard above the voices of the crowds perpetually, rather 
make a spectacle of horror, than of pleasure. Christians 
keep their Easter in a different fashion. Let us begin 
with the Christian Lent. 

Living in Aleppo, we are almost at the portals of that 
celebrated Antioch, where the chair of truth and the 
Apostolic See were established by St. Peter. This is 
the primal city in the universe, you are well aware, that 
saw true adorers in its precincts — 'tis the first city that 
ever held Christians in its hallowed walls. Submissive 
to the voice of the Apostles, their spirit was bequeathed 
to the docile city, which cherished their imperishable ordi- 
nances. She learned from those sacred lips how to hold 
the high and solemn festivals of Christianity, as well as to 
observe every other practice of our creed. The circumjacent 
cities conformed themselves speedily to the sacred model 
which Antioch presented, and as Aleppo (which was 
called Hierapolis in ancient times, and Berea subse- 
quently) was the most adjacent. Of all the towns in 
Asia, 'twas the most exact in conforming to the customs 



CHRISTIAN LENT. 



103 



and traditions which distinguished Antioch. It has even 
an advantage over every other ; — religion has been unin- 
terruptedly observed in Antioch, since St. Peter intro- 
duced it, to the present hour ; in consequence of which 
its traditions are more certain, its practices more respect- 
able. Let that be as it may, certain it is that their fasts 
are exceedingly austere, and that their lenten observances 
are wonderfully rigorous. 

The custom of the Maronites is that of Catholicity ; 
while Armenians, Greeks and Surians abstain from every 
species of sustenance till 3 in the afternoon, and even 
then the following articles of food — butter, fish, milk, 
cheese, and oil, are carefully excluded from their lenten 
repasts. The Armenians are more austere ; together 
with refraining from these viands, the Armenians abstain 
from wine, and never dream of dispensations, Old men 
of 80 and children of ten fast as rigorously as persons 
in the prime of life. Matrons enceinte, women giving 
suck, conceive themselves subjected to the same dis- 
cipline, yet you never see an accident follow this auste- 
rity. They are perfectly persuaded, that from this obli- 
gation no human casuality can possibly exempt them. 
Persons on the point of death, who, in order to sustain 
expiring nature, are coerced by necessity to take a little 
food, are careful to exclude the prohibited descriptions. 
If an egg has been eaten by a schismatic when sick, he 
trembles to confess it, as he deems it a transgression too 
deep to be forgiven. Should a doctor, in the beginning 
of Lent, to preserve his patient's health, prohibit fasting 
and prescribe flesh meat, he would not make a fortune ; 
they would regard him as not only a prevaricator, but as 
a monster, and as a minister of Satan ; they would fly 



104 



THE ENGLISH, 



from their Physician with the utmost horror. Such is 
the rigour of the orientalists, as well in opinion as in 
practice. 

You will enquire of me now how the Protestants 
behave. As in Holland and in England, the Protestants 
in Asia observe neither abstinence nor fast ; but every 
one is scandalized at such a line of conduct. The natives 
of the country cannot be persuaded that the Protestants 
belong to the brotherhood of Christians ; they cannot 
conceive that they come within the pale of Christianity, 
and even the Mussulmans consider them as destitute and 
nude of all religion. They are sometimes sensible of 
these reproaches, and being unable to sustain them, in 
lenten times consume their meat in secret. Some of them 
confess that they are perfectly surprised to see that all 
the religions of the East nearly agree in nothing with 
that which they profess. We derive a decided advantage 
from this difference. You wish us to ascend, we some- 
times say to them, to the earliest epochs of the naissant 
faith in order to justify traditions — the period you appeal 
to is the first four centuries. Ask of any or of all of these 
people who environ you, and will they not tell you that 
in their observances, which are likewise those of Roman 
Catholics, they invariably follow apostolical traditions ; 
traditions which the celebrated Antioch bestowed on them 
whom they consider as their mother. Our Protestants 
are considerably embarrassed by these arguments ; they 
dare not say that lent, confession, fast, and abstinence, 
purgatory and the real presence, are merely the inven- 
tion of the Roman See and which have issued from the 
forge of Satan. With their eyes, with their own eyes, 
do they see the very contrary. The question is not here 



PROTESTANTS. 



105 



about Babylon or Anti-Christ ; these, indeed, are words 
of thundering sound, which, enunciated with that insane 
hardihood which heresy inspires, are irrefutable arguments 
in England, but are so utterly inane and null as to signify 
something less than nothing here. They must attack a 
thousand Christian nations — they must repudiate antiquity, 
say anathema to Antioch, and relinquish the apostles. 
The step is very difficult to take. Those gentlemen, 
accordingly, are careful to avoid the agitation of a ques- 
tion which they find is indefensible, and more experienced 
than in Christendom, on controverted points and on 
Catholic observances, they maintain a serious silence, 
being well convinced that the Greek church would not 
give them her suffrage. This conformity in opinion of 
the Greek and Latin churches sometimes makes a salutary 
impression upon persons whose lives are in the right. 
Some years since, I was very intimate with a minister of 
Holland. He was a man of much intelligence, and, as 
he spoke Latin with facility, I frequently conversed with 
him. He had paid for a birth on board a vessel in the 
harbour when he told me in confidence, before his embarka- 
tion, that, in order to consider an affair of much impor- 
tance he should visit Italy, as his personal experience had 
elicited reflections by which the complexion of his opinions 
had been altered. 

Persons of the faith pretendedly reformed would 
hardly undertake to dogmatise in this place ; they would 
not, at least, do so with impunity. Some time since, a 
clergyman of the church of England, whose zeal for his 
opinions was perfectly quixotical, got a catechism printed 
at considerable cost ; he hoped to innoculate the spirits 

of the Christians of the country with the virus with which 

f 5 



106 



ST. GEORGE. 



he was himself infected ; but it was trodden under foot ? 
it was torn into pieces, and its separated fragments com- 
mitted to the flames, before the missioners had time to 
pay attention to the circumstance. The Christians of all 
"these countries of the sun" never dream of doubting the 
real presence in the eucharist ; and they are so devoted 
to their lenten rules, they'd rather die than break them ; 
and from their parent in the faith, from their neighhour 
Antioch, they have learned the practice of praying for 
the dead. To invoke the saints, St. George especially 
is so dear a privilege, that the easterns would die a 
thousand deaths rather than relinquish it. Nothing can 
be added to the solemn veneration with which the very 
Turks consider Mary ; they term her the mother of the 
great prophet Jesus, and they revere the Virgin in the 
quality of mother so profoundly, that in horror they 
impale the Jews alive who venture to blaspheme her. 
How contradictory is human nature ! — what strange dis- 
crepancies mankind exhibit ! Men who are born in the 
bosom of the faith deny the blessed Lady that respect 
which even the most implacable antagonists of the name 
of Christianity concede her. 

The grave respect of the unsmiling Mussulman is by 
no means limited to Mary. The tomb of the Messiah is 
one of the termini of his " pilgrim feet." When traver- 
sing the seas or deserts that encircle Palestine, the Maho- 
medan pilgrim looks often and often, with an eye of vene- 
ration, over the waste, for the sepulchre of Jesus, and 
having returned from that toilsome wayfaring, his tur- 
baned brethren, when in the evening sunset they sit 
round him with their long chibouks, listen to his recital 
with attention, and regard him as a person of exalted 



THE HADJEES. 



107 



piety ; or, if he happen to pass by them, they exclaim as 
they point after him, " he is a saint ; he has been at 
Mecca and Jerusalem." They attach distinction to this 
double pilgrimage. A merchant of ours who lived a long 
time in the holy city, and saw these Turkish pilgrims 
repeatedly, informed me that they trail upon their knees 
from the portal of the sepulchre ; that they remove 
from the turban its cesse previously to entering (which 
is always ignominious when done by force, but a token 
of respect, if spontaneously performed) ; that finally they 
incline themselves profoundly, and, prostrate on the 
earth, touch the flooring with their forehead. " This 
spectacle," he added, " has always edified me, and even 
moved me in some instances to tears." Among the many 
magnificent and pompous titles which the Grand Signior 
assumes in mandates emanating from the throne, appears 
that of preserver and protector of the city of Jerusalem. 
'Tis a secret solace to the captive Christians to see their 
haughty masters doing so much honour to the God whom 
they adore. They implicitly believe in all the articles 
of Christian faith, while to many Europeans its a mise- 
rable pleasure to torment themselves and others with 
affected doubts. I fear I have slightly deviated from my 
subject-matter, Rev. Father, but you will be so good as 
to attribute this digression to my zeal. I return to the 
manner in which Easter is observed by our Asiatic 
Christians. 

Easter Sunday is entitled the day of the great festival, 
or simply the feast. Surians, Armenians, Maronites, and 
Greeks, Catholics, Heretics and Schismatics alike have 
the same observances in paschal times. Exactly as in 
Europe, we have three successive festivals, and, as in 



108 



CHRISTIAN EASTER. 



Europe, the solemnity commences on holy Saturday. 
They observe no fast upon the easter eve, as they never 
fast on Saturday. When the sun has gone down, more- 
over, the Armenians eat flesh meat on holy Saturday. 
An Armenian had been shrived by our superior, and 
when he had renounced his schism, he promised to conform 
to the custom of the Catholics, and eat no meat till Easter 
Sunday ; but, added the Armenian, I can promise nothing 
more ; for I fear my authority is not sufficient to prevail 
upon my wife to be equally abstemious. 

When they meet one another on the day of the great 
festival, one tells the other to rejoice, " as Jesus the 
Messiah has arisen." " Yes,"' says that other, " He is 
truly risen." They decorate their houses on this happy 
day, and put on their most magnificent apparel ; and there 
is no one in the city but wears something new ; — they leave 
the church at 10 o'clock, and continue to pay visits until 
evening. Kindness, cordiality and decency pervade these 
meetings. Every heart is lighted up by an innocent and 
guileless joy, and you easily perceive 'tis religion that 
inspires it. 

On Holy Saturday, the friars and the French visit us 
and wish us a good Easter ; we receive the same honour 
from the English and the Hollanders. Do not be sur- 
prised at these reciprocal civilities. Whether English, 
French, Italians, or Dutch, we consider one another as 
compatriots here with reference to the people who environ 
us, who in turn designate all Europeans by one common 
appellation, that of Franks. 

The visits we received we returned upon Monday ; 
we passed by the Iudaide, or the quarter of the Chris- 
tians. All the streets in this section of the city were 



MAKONITE BISHOP. 



109 



traversed by a multitude of people, natives of all lands, 
and even by Turks, with baskets full of flowers, which the 
bearers vended to those who wished to buy those fra- 
grant wares. Toys were exhibited in all directions. 
People rivalled one another in exclaiming, when they 
met, " Rejoice, for Jesus the Messiah is arisen." For 
three successive days, nothing can be heard but these 
expressions, suggested by religion to her followers ; and 
it would seem as if all languages were consecrated to 
announce the resurrection. 

Our first visit was to the archbishop of the Maronites. 
A rector received us at the door, by whom we were led 
to the parlour of the prelate ; it was the room of state, 
the finest apartment in his lordship's house. Will you 
credit it, my Rev. Father, this room of state was little 
larger than a Jesuit's cell, and this, you must admit, is 
saying little. This clashes with your French ideas, and 
at first, I must confess, I was surprised myself. Here 
we were standing in the presence of the prelate, on a 
piece of carpeting of great antiquity? on which his grace 
was sitting with his legs across, with his back against a 
cushion, which, as well as I could judge, was as aged as 
the carpet. His vicar sat beside him, and some rectors 
beside him, in the oriental mode. His lordship rose upon 
our entrance, and when we took his hand to kiss it, he 
withdrew it. Tis the custom of the country for the 
clergymen to kiss the prelate's hands, while the laics, 
when they meet them in the streets in the presence of 
the Mussulmans, confer the same honor on the priests. 

We next paid a visit to the Grecian patriarch, who 
sat in a saloon as extensive and magnificent as one af our 
European churches. Do not be scandalised at such an 



110 



GREEK PATRIARCH. 



alteration from the Maronite's simplicity. This sumptuous 
apartment was not erected by the pride, but by the piety, 
of the Greek. The pious prelate has his purposes. His 
design in building this superb apartment is to make a 
church of it as soon as may be ; — this is a device which 
the Christians have recourse to. As the Alcoran prohi- 
bits them to build new churches, to escape a direct viola- 
tion of the law they build saloons, which they live in for 
some years. They subsequently ask permission of the 
Porte to change them into churches, and they easily 
obtain it if a certain sum of money be transmitted to the 
Grand Vizier. 

Thus the prelate must not only be forgiven, but 
applauded. He has conformed to the Catholic opinions. 
The schismatical ascendancy in the city of Damascus, 
where he then resided, who, after his conversion, did not 
wish to be of his communion, proceeded to elect another 
patriarch ; this division has obliged him to settle in 
Aleppo. He is, physically and morally, as fine a man as 
you could wish to see ; his manners are polished, prepos- 
sessing, and engaging. He made us sit beside him on 
the same carpet with his grace. I will not tell you that 
with both the prelates they presented us with coffee. 
Asiatics would deem themselves dishonoured if they 
omitted to present it, and despised if the coffee were 
refused. After offering our devoirs to the princes of the 
church, we visited the principal inhabitants, whether 
Surians, Greeks, Armenians, or Maronites. We were 
received in every instance in an ornamented room, where 
a table is perpetually spread for three successive days to 
feast the visitors. The viands were the same in every 
residence — hard eggs, dates, figs, grapes, pestachios, and 



CONVERSIONS 



111 



confectionary of various kinds. You make your choice 
among these different meats, and, when he has eaten, a 
cup of wine and water is offered to the visitor. You may 
eat and drink as little as you like, but at every visit you 
must eat and drink. Were it not for that, these visits 
would be insupportable ; but, in consequence, they are 
followed by no inconveniency. 

What I have written will suffice to shew the discre- 
pancy between the Ramadan and the Lent — between 
Christian solemnities aod Ottoman observances. Merely 
to judge by this superficial seeming, the Christian reli- 
gion must triumph over Islamism in the judgment of all 
their unprejudiced observers. Piety, innocence, and de- 
cency, are all upon the side of Christianity. I write these 
details without fearing to fatigue you — in France they 
are so avid of the merest trifles introduced to them from 
alien nations ! Can manners, creeds and customs prove 
less irritating to their curiosity. 

In all their missions, our Fathers of Aleppo have the 
same success. One half of the Suriaus have already 
been converted. We have reason to expect that the 
Surians of Aleppo will be all re-united to the Church of 
Rome in a very little time. The Armenians and the 
Greeks are awaking to their errors, and are relinquishing 
them every day. Do not despise these conquests, Rev. 
Sir ; the reason they are sometimes rare is, that they are 
very difficult, and if it happen that any one be tempted 
to despise them, induce him to remember the opinion of 
a holy doctor, that you may enlighten millions of idol- 
aters with more facility, and touch a thousand sinners 



112 



THE QUESTION. 



with more ease, than persuade a heretic, and that a schis- 
matic's conversion is a species of miracle. And yet we 
daily see this miracle performed. 

We have the solace of beholding daily, converts 
whose fidelity is firm as the mountains. Not long ago, 
a Surian, who had recently renounced his schism, was 
questioned by a prelate of the schism concerning his 
opinions. " Tell me," said the prelate, " aren't you a 
Frank," as the term has a very universal meaning, em- 
bracing all the natives of the Christian countries, as well 
as the professors of the Catholic religion. The convert 
considered himself as warranted in saying that he was not 
a Frank. " But," pursued the prelate, " have you not 
embraced the religion of the Franks." " The religion of 
the Franks," the Surian repeated ; " of what Franks 
pray ?" You should know, to understand the Christian's 
answer, that the Surian s detest the religion of the Eng- 
lish, who are not good Franks, they say. To bring his 
tergiversation to an end, the prelate cried, " Do you not 
follow the opinions of the Pope and the Church of Rome ?" 
The question was unsusceptible of ambiguity — dissimu- 
lation would be treason to his faith. " Oh, yes," replied 
the Surian ; " I glory in the circumstance." " Know 
you what you are saying, infidel ?" exclaimed the schis- 
matic. " Know I what I am saying ? know you, my 
lord, that already almost all the Surian people participate 
in my opinions, and that we shall be all reunited to the 
church of Rome before the world's much older. You 
have more knowledge than the laity, my lord ; ye are 
our fathers and our masters in the faith ; why do you not 
lead us to the truth yourselves ? Is it not a shame that 



THE MULE. 



113 



we are obliged to go before you, Signior ?" Exaspe- 
rated by these just reproaches, the prelate repressed the 
explosion of his anger, and replied, In peccatis natus es 
totus, Sfc> and returned him the six piastres which the 
bishop had received by way of tithes. The convert, who 
had no expectation of this present, received it willingly, 
it was so much saved upon the Surian's side, and so much 
lost upon the prelate's, who revenged himself a few days 
afterwards in a very impotent and foolish way. In pas- 
sing by the Surian's dwelling, he cursed the house, and 
interdicted its inhabitant. But, then, was this excom- 
munication valid ? You may easily conceive how little 
the new Catholic was troubled by the censure. All that 
I know is, that he failed to bring him back the six piastres 
in order to the removal of the interdiction. This was a 
measure which you would not have advised. 

I promised you, my Rev. Father, to finish this epistle 
with some of the circumstances of my journey. I am 
sure that some of the scenes will amuse you much, though 
they gave me little pleasure at the time I was enacting 
them. On leaving Tripoli, I was confided to the care 
of a chief of Muletiers, denominated Soliman. I remem- 
ber, that while I was making up my little baggage on 
the day of my departure, Soliman was breakfasting. 
Soliman was no way scrupulous — my guide was totally 
untroubled by those qualms of conscience which so often 
disturb Mussulmans when drinking wine, and as no 
Mahomedan was near who might interrupt his pleasure, 
my guide indulged in deep potations. This elevation 
over local prejudices prepossessed me in his favour. We 
were hardly in the plain, with its wide expanse before us, 
when he made me mount my mule, which had neither 



114 



THE ARABS. 



girth nor stirrups, and was only intended for a sumpter 
mule. Pricking up his Rosinante, Soliman set out with 
great rapidity; mine had too much spirit to be left 
behind, but pranced forward with expanded nostrils, in 
the vain hope, as it seemed to me, of vying with his 
comrade. The moment that my mule began to move, I 
was removed from my seat, and pitched upon the ground ; 
my baggage descended instantaneously, falling on my 
person with a heavy jog. Though I was left alone, 
luckily I ,was not wounded. Having risen from the 
earth, as my guide was out of sight, I called aloud for 
help. A Turk descended from a neighbouring hill, and 
spontaneously assisted me in replacing my baggage on 
my mule, and having kindly enquired if I suffered any 
pain, good naturedly assisted me to mount my mule. I 
now proceeded on my journey at a very gentle pace, for 
I assure you that my unexpected fall had greatly edified 
me. At noon, I arrived at a ruined castle, where the 
caravan was destined to assemble. As soon as I descended 
from my mule, I sat me down upon a river's bank at 50 
paces from the ruined castle, and opening my scrip upon 
the sward, with the limpid water running at my feet, pre- 
pared to dine. Two hard eggs and a little cheese, formed 
the materials of my meal, but I reckoned upon eating it 
alone, and at least tranquillity I hoped would be present 
at my humble repast, when I saw myself approached by 
two tall Arabs, who demanded their share ! I cannot 
positively tell from whence they came, but I pleaded 
eloquently for my viands. For twelve days' march, 
my scanty store was twelve hard eggs, some nuts, 
some biscuits, and the half of a cheese. They were deaf 
to all my arguments, and the mouths of the barrels of 



SOLIMAN THE GUIDE. 



115 



their muskets were levelled at my person. It was better 
to fast a little in addition, I thought, than to be killed ; 
accordingly, I shared with the Arabs a little of my food, 
and the Arabs were satisfied witli a little. 

Having provided for my board so well, my lodging 
was the next great object. I selected a projection from 
the wall, a sort of shelf or ledge, something like the 
the surbase of a chamber, upon which I laid my paillasse. 
This was in reality a mat (rather than a paillasse), such as 
they place upon a nude's back, lest his burden gall him. 
Though it was any thing but good, the place excited 
envy. A Turk deposited his arms upon this ledge who 
told me he should keep it, " because,'' he continued, and the 
argument was irresistible, "its the most commodious I can 
find." The sole accommodation which the place possessed, 
as far as I could see was, that you could see the moon 
and stars and blue expanse of ocean from this ledge ; I 
relinquished it reluctantly, and while I disputed the pos- 
session, the sound of my voice attracted Soliman my 
guide. Nothing could surpass the civility of Soliman 
to me, when turning fiercely on my Turk, and assuming 
a magisterial tone, he told him that he knew me, and 
that I should in his despite repose upon the ledge, because 
(and this is an additional specimen of Turkish logic,) I 
was a doctor of my law and a doctor of the Franks. 
The title was a thunder-stroke to my adversary, who 
stultified at so much dignity, retired from the ground 
without making a reply. You see that this honorable 
appellation, on which certain individuals set so little 
value, is not always useless. 

We had another scene the succeeding evening as 
violent as this. We were encamped upon a meadow 



116 



THE PROFANATION. 



which was separated from a Turkish Cemetery only by 
an intervening road, I expected in the Cemetery to find 
a proper place to spread my paillasse. I assumed my 
capote at the entry of night, which is a kind of surtout 
which travellers on land or sea make use of, as at present 
they make use of a riding coat in England ; it differs in 
nothing from the habit of a Capuchin, except in being 
lined with thick drab cloth, and being open in the front. 
Taking my capote I proceeded to repose upon a sepulchre 
which had been placed above a Turk a few days pre- 
viously. The stone which closed the tomb seemed to 
me to be disposed designedly to suit my purposes, it 
seemed admirably adapted for a bed, it was smooth and 
horizontal, and I was perfectly delighted with my 
lodgings, but unfortunately my delicacy cost me dear. I 
was scarce a quarter of an hour wrapt in a deep and 
tranquil sleep, when I was awaked by the cries of several 
Turks, who encircling my tomb commenced vociferating 
that I was profaning the sepulchre and the cemetery, 
for a Christian to repose on a Moslem's tomb, to whom 
heaven had been opened by the great Mahomet, was an 
exceedingly bad augury for them, they asseverated 
simultaneously. My charitable Soliman was not devout, 
he looked upon this zeal as superstition, but knowing 
that we were not the strongest party, my personal 
security excited his alarm. He extricated me from this 
dilemma with as much decency and on my part, with as 
little loss of dignity as could be hoped for. Imagine 
his bales of merchandises packed on one side, and his 
mules parallel upon the other, on the intervening space 
he spread a horse cloth ; now as I found, that for me 
there was no tranquillity, even at the grave ; as I was 



A TROUBLED NIGHT. 



117 



obliged to relinquish my sepulchre, I sought repose upon 
his horse cloth. Here I slept quiescently ; the mules, 
who often dipped their nostrils to ascertain my nature 
and sometimes touched me with their heels, failing to do 
me any injury. These mules are the mildest creatures 
in the world, and among the Franks it is a common 
proverb, that in the Levant the beasts are as mild as 
human creatures, and the men have the cruelty of beasts. 

In the middle of an obscure night, we set out upon a 
narrow road which was full of ruts, and edged with 
precipices, for we could not defer our departure till the 
dawn. "We individually studied the person who preceded 
us with great sedulity, as we could only follow in an Indian 
file, that is, one by one. Luckily for me I was preceded 
by a Turk, whom I perceived with facility before me, 
for the cesse of his turban being white, by which the 
Turks are distinguished from the Christians ; the cesse 
was discernible even in the dark. Like that of the 
priests of the Greeks and Maronites, mine was blue : 
to those who are not priests, it is permissible to wear 
red or violet, those of the Jews being striped. The 
descendants of Mahomet are privileged to wear a green 
silk Turban, and the race of Mahomet only. 

An ambassador complained to the king of Persia, on 
the part of the Grand Signior, that green was worn by 
his commonest domestics, for which as the colour of the 
great Mahomet they should have respect. The Schah 
replied, laughing at their superstition, that this " sacred 
colour was the commonest of all, that bulls and asses 
trod upon the green, and that blue, as the colour of the 
skies, should be esteemed more highly." The ambassador 



118 



THE NUTS. 



was disconcerted, he ceased to insist upon this article of 
his instructions. 

Worn by the way and exhausted by the sun, I saw 
some trees in a distant valley; I bent my footsteps thither, 
but on approaching, I saw that some distinguished Turks 
had raised pavillions in this grateful shade. I retired 
instantaneously, and leaned against some bales of goods, 
on which the sun's reverberations were intolerable, 
although it was November. A Turk of my brigade 
offered me a cup of coffee without sugar, it was far from 
being a pleasing beverage to me, but, acquainted with 
the customs of the country, I took it unhesitatingly, and 
as I was bathed in perspiration, I strove to gulp the 
coffee ; not to be outdone, in generosity I made him a 
present in my turn, consisting of six nuts. I specify the 
number, as the number of my nuts at the time was a 
matter of consideration ; I fancy I found some favour 
in his eyes, and every day during the continuance of 
our journey we reciprocally made these mutual presents. 

We encamped beside a river the succeeding day ; we 
sat upon the sward with the cool lymph running at our 
feet, where the dense and interwoven foliage afforded 
a delicious shade. My situation as to scenery was perfectly 
delightful ; but, unfortunately, I had nothing to eat : my 
provisions were sg very much diminished, that I looked 
forward to the utter absence of a supper. Soliman, my 
incomparable Soliman, the solitary confidant of all my 
needs, and all my indigence, brought me two little birds 
that had been broiled upon the coals. Soliman had got 
them from the fowlers of the caravan ; to me they were 
manna in the wilderness. We divided them between 
us, one of them I took, and left Soliman the other, who 



THE MEAL. 119 

added to the feast a bowl of rice, which was so very 
solid that you could hardly penetrate it with a spoon ; 
and unhappily we had but one of these necessary articles. 
We made use of this solitary spoon alternately, taking 
turn about with admirable order ; I swallowed my rice 
and repugnancy together ; I was a veteran in oriental 
habitudes. He began to eat the first : " eat away, that is 
good, dont be afraid," says Soliman to me, gulping his 
rice and giving me the spoon; so we sat round the basin 
and toiled with assiduous industry. We drank from the 
same vessel placing the same pitcher to our lips, we 
quaffed as much water as we wished, without the slightest 
cost or scandal ; I say the same pitcher, because this 
would be a heinous violation of decorum in France, but 
it would be disgraceful to do otherwise in the Levant, 
as they always affect equality in Asia. I saw Moorish 
slaves, in the course of my journey, eating with their 
master, at their owner's table, selecting such viands as 
they happened to prefer. This is utterly opposed to 
French politeness, but in the Mussulman's opinion, it 
conforms to the laws of humanity and nature. They 
reason thus ; we are all men, the Mahometans aver, 
consequently in our origin we are all equal : a man should 
never entertain the slightest repugnancy for another 
man. Probably we might reply that this harmonizes 
with the laws of nature, but not with nature, civilised 
and perfected by education ; such reasoning, however, 
is lost upon the Turks ; they laugh at our onerous and 
irksome politeness. 

We next arrived at the gates of a city, which we did 
not enter. The inhabitants immediately came out in 
crowds, some from curiosity to see new faces, and some 



120 



KISSING THE HAND. 



from love to find acquaintances ; Turks endeavoured to 
discover Turks, Greeks sought Greeks, Catholics were 
busy in ascertaining Catholic. As amid this multitude 
nobody sought for me, I was a tranquil spectator of the 
scene, unable to play any but the part of a mute. I had 
no dinner at my command, and a few biscuits in the 
bottom of my sack were all that remained of my travel- 
ling provision. To rest myself was my only aim, except 
to view, as I sat, the situation of the place, when I was 
approached by certain persons, who, saluting me, res- 
pectfully kissed my hand. 

The persons who saluted me were Christian Maronites, 
who perceived from my dress, as I suspected, that I was 
a priest. Perceiving that their deputies were well 
received, a multitude of Maronites assembled round me, 
who did me, in the presence of the Turks, the same 
honour as their deputies. The rector himself repaired to 
visit me, but as he was my brother in the priesthood, the 
rector did not kiss my hand. Beseeching me to follow 
him, he led me to his house, where a dinner was served 
up, consisting simply of battered eggs, but to me this 
meal was luxury. He led me to his church as soon as 
dinner was concluded : this church became crowded with 
Maronites the moment that I entered it, who were anxious 
to contemplate a European priest. I sung the complins 
and vespers of all saints' day aloud for them, as well as 
the matins and the Lauds of the ensuing day. As they 
joined me in the chant, I from pure civility could not 
cease to sing while they continued, nor would they give 
over for a single moment while they saw me, w ith open 
throat, continue to entone the melody ; having never 



MISERABLE CHUHCH. 



121 



heard it previously for them the chant of the church of 
Rome had all the charms of novelty, 

Yonr zeal for the honour of our Saviour's house, I am 
certain, would excite your Reverence to tears were I to 
describe this miserable church. Shall I say it was a 
stable, but the pile, alas, was less respectable, sir, it 
was something more indecent. The edifice consisted of 
a little square, four miserable rafters stretched across the 
four bleak wads that formed it, briars were bound up in 
bundles, and were lying- in faggots on these naked rafters. 
The roof had been made into a terrace on the outside, 
on which persons promenaded, the walk was on a level 
with a neighbouring field. The rector shewed me all 
his ornaments, which consisted of a poor chasuble, the 
towel and the alb were quite discoloured, and had been 
at least six months in service. The altar was without 
an antipendium, the naked stone was destitute of 
covering. <; He shoidd ornament the altar for the coming 
festival," he said : he proceeded to his treasury with this 
design, and four pictures which he fastened to the wall 
with pins, the present of a passing missioneiv (you. might 
buy them in France for an English penny) were first 
exhibited. He regarded me with triumph in his eyes 
when his gallery was hung ; I endeavoured to express 
ray satisfaction at the rectors taste. Had I been able to 
unpack my goods and separate them from incumbent 
things, I should willingly have given him what he wanted. 
Although the sacrament was in its shrine, no cresset 
burned in the sanctuary. Doubtless, you expect a 

* The meanest prints upon religious subjects, are highly esteemed 
bv the Christians of the East, while a pen-knife is a princelv present 
to a Turk. 

G 



122 



THE SACRAMEKT. 



description of the tabernacle, but alas, the temple had 
no tabernacle ; a box of a reddish colour enclosed the 
blessed eucharist, it was lying on a level with the chan- 
delier, and this ciborium of wood was a missionary's gift* 
I presented the rector with a better box, which he secreted 
in his treasury. How touching is a scene like this, to a 
truly Christian heart. 

Having rejoined the division of the caravan, to which 
I appertained, two fowls, I found, and a gourd of wine, 
had been sent me by the grateful priest. With this 
supply, I considered myself rich, I flattered myself with 
the reflexion that I now could gratify my generosity, 
and to-morrow might remunerate my Achates Soliman. 
I had eaten my attendant's birds ; that he should share 
my fowls, was only equity. Before dinner time I put a 
little wine into my cup, and in order to add some water 
to my wine, I took the pitcher of that Turkish traveller 
who so frequently had given me a cup of coffee ; he permitted 
me to act, but as soon as I had done he went to wash his 
pitcher at the fountain. Because a little of its water had 
been poured into my wine, this Turk, who was very 
different from Soliman, considered it unclean. As the 
slightest suspicion of his motive never dawned upon my 
mind, as soon as he returned I resumed the pitcher, as 
my draught was not sufficiently diluted ; rising from his 
seat a second time, the Turk poured the water on the 
earth, and again proceeded to the fountain. The mystic 
motive of the Mussulman eventually struck my mind ; 
you may imagine with what fervidness I formed the 
resolve to spare him such species of trouble for the 
future. When Soliman arrived, I related my adventure, 
beseeching him to bring me to some place apart where 



THE PITCHER. 



123 



he and I might dine together. He led me to a little 
thicket where he emptied the wine cup handsomely, 
because, sitting in the foliage as he was, the surrounding 
shrubs concealed him ; this, besides, was the Druses' 
country, whom the Mahometans regard as heretics. 

Dinner being done, my religious Turk overwhelmed me 
anew with trouble. Happening to feelathirstinthe refresh- 
ing evening hour, I repaired to that chrystal fountain, of 
which I have spoke before ; with his pitcher in his hand, 
the Moslem met me at the water's edge. The succeeding 
moment the scene was as follows. He was standing perfectly 
erect, while I was stooping, cup in hand, to fill my pitcher 
with the lymph. The scene was perfectly serene, fountain, 
skies and trees, 'twas all tranquillity? serenity, and peace ; 
when he suddenly exclaimed with all his energy, ia allha, 
ia allka, O God ! O God! Stultified with so much clamour, 
I regarded him with open mouth ; but it was not long 
before I inferred from the Turks' embarrassment, gesti- 
culations, cries, complaints, that I had committed some 
enormous fault. As I happened to be thirsty, I permitted 
him to cry, and stooping to the well once more, I quenched 
my drought. While I was engaged in drinking and the 
Turk was still exclaiming, many other Turks arrived. 
" Beware, beware," my Mussulman exclaimed, with a 
holy horror in his countenance, " beware of drinking 
this polluted water, this infidel hath dipped his wine cup 
in the wave, the fountain is defiled ! !" 

The reply they made was to ask him jeeringly, 
" upon your soul," ( a la nafra.J I asserted stoutly that 
the fount was not defiled, naam a la nafsi, fyc. and all 
the wits of the world will agree with me ; for though 
wine may be frequently defiled with water, that water 



124 



THE FOUNTAIN. 



could ever be defiled by wine, shocks all common sense. 
The Mussulman spectators who stood around the foun- 
tain, gave credit to my pleadings preferably to his, and 
assuredly the Moslems were right, though certain it is, 
that conformably with their ideas, the fountain is unclean, 
and how its lost purity shall be restored to it, I cannot 
imagine. We descended by a sloping road into a valley, 
where a multitude of cottages were scattered through 
the fields. If you be a stranger in a foreign land, every 
thing you see will excite your admiration. The persons 
who crowded to these cottage doors, who stood beneath 
their eaves looking on us as we passed, awakened my 
surprise by their singular habiliment. They had their 
garments plentifully garnished with mother of pearl, 
and with shells, with precious stones, and the golden 
sequins of Venice, the females having pendants not only 
in their ears, but what is much more singular, drooping 
from their noses. The expression which this ornament 
confers upon the countenance, strikes an European as 
entirely new, but 'tis quite in keeping. From both their 
nostrils pearls were dependant, and such was the amount 
of these jewels of the nose, that in some, how the noses 
could sustain them, was a matter of astonishment. 

We approached the abode of a horde of Arabs. We 
put ourselves in battle array, and passed the Arabs 
proudly. These brigands are afraid of fire arms, but 
entertain more terror for a Frenchman without arms, 
than for a Turk with weapons in his hands, of whom 
one Arab is considered as a match for five, and five 
Arabs for a single Frenchman, which will enable you to 
judge how far the terror of the name of France diffuses 
itself. 



ARABS. 



125 



We finally arrived at Cafetin, the father-land of 
S oliman. I found accommodations at the house of 
Soliman, who by way of company, brought home the 
Turk, whose piety had caused me so much trouble on 
the route. On the route I often ate my meal in company, 
but till now I never ate it in a family way. As every 
thing they offered me excited my disgust, I watched the 
customs of the curious people, among whom I was a 
stranger. To see with what rapidity the Turks consume 
their food, is quite surprising, they were little more 
than fifteen minutes at their present meal. They washed 
their hands in water as soon as they had done, and their 
slovenliness rendered this precaution necessary. 

The friends of my landlord came to see me, out of 
curiosity rather than civility : when they had surveyed 
me to their satisfaction, the visitors retired, when I saw 
myself surrounded by the females of the family, who 
grouped themselves before me, for fear I should be lone- 
some. I was surprised at their appearance, as women 
never enter the society of men in Asiatic countries. They 
were told, perhaps, by Soliman, that I was a religious, 
and that to visit me together would be no disgrace : my 
discovery, that their veils were raised augmented my 
astonishment. However, I never looked the ladies in 
the face, for here 'twould be considered as the greatest 
rudeness, and if they had perceived it, they'd have lowered 
their veils. Such are the austere laws which are imposed 
upon these people by the rigour of their education. Their 
manners are different indeed from ours. I had never, in 
the course of my European mission, experienced such 
good nature as I met with from this family of unbelievers. 
As I did not understand them, though they spoke to me 



126 



LANGUAGES. 



perpetually, they would often have the patience to vary 
their expression, in such different ways, that eventually 
I discerned some glimpses of their meaning. The natives 
of France, with all their elegant politeness, are not so 
complaisant in all instances to foreigners. Anything 
that I said was understood by them, as I took care to 
utter nothing that I did not know. The incongruous 
collocation of my words, my expressions, and my accent, 
sometimes made them smile, bat the manner of the smile 
was more pleasing than offensive, inspiring me with con- 
fidence rather than abashing me. They asked me did I 
know the Arabic. No, I replied ; my studies in the 
tongue have but recently begun. Do you know the 
Turkish? No! 

66 Permit me, sir, to ask what language do you know ? n 
Italian, and Latin, French, and Greek ; I am well 
acquainted, too, with all religions ; I have reason to 
declare that only one of them is true, viz. the one that I 
profess, a religion which, unhappily, you do not know, 
but since you show me so much kindness, I shall return 
a second time to see you when I know your tongue, to 
acquaint you with it, to give you information, to attempt 
to save you. My promises seemed to be received with 
gratitude. Judging from appearances, missioners alone 
are wanted here. The Druses feel the utmost horror for 
polygamy, and though in order to avoid avanies, and the 
rude and cruel treatment of the Turks, they fail to receive 
the blessed sacraments, they repudiate none of them in 
speculation. Two impediments are thus removed, wont 
to give much trouble to the missioner. Feeling the 
affectionate respect of these good people, I was solicitous 
to show my sense of it ; some trifling presents were the 



THE CROSSES. 



127 



fittest mean, but I was very poor. I found at length 
some trifles in my sack, which I distributed : I had rosa- 
ries, indeed, of a reddish wood, but as the crosses of the 
rosaries could give offence, and some insult might be 
offered to the symbol of salvation, I did not dare to offer 
them. I took courage, notwithstanding, and gave one 
to a girl that was hanging at the breast. But what was 
my astonishment, when I saw the mother take the chaplet 
from the child, and after kissing it, place it on her fore- 
head with profound respect. The rosary went round 
from hand to hand till every soul in the assembly kissed, 
considered and admired it. These are indeed a very Chris- 
tian kind of infidels. I murmured half aloud as I regarded 
them. It would seem, as if missioners were all that these 
people stood in need of. If they do not get instruction 
the fault is not ours, suffer me to say, that to you we must 
attribute it. Let us have assistance Rev. Sir. 

Whilst the circle were engaged in considering the 
cross, a lilliputian neighbour, of the age of nine, glided 
over the unechoing floor into a neighbouring apartment, 
the better to peep out at my extraordinary person ; the 
stripling was the son of a Mahometan. Filled with a 
feverish desire to see the curiosity, he left his hiding place 
to peep between their arms. But the moment he beheld 
the cross, he ran madly to a corner to procure a stick. 
Opposition was offered. They turned that chap out, and 
then continued to admire the crucifix. 

After they had given me a thousand thanks, my cham- 
ber-lamp was freighted full of oil ; for it is the custom 
of the country, to have a lighted lamp the live long night 
in every apartment, as well in summer nights as in those 
of winter. Left to the solitude of my apartment, I said 



128 



NIGHT LAMP. 



my prayers, and took a little slumber. The succeeding 
day I reached my journey's end. 

I have kept my word, my Reverend Father, — hut as 
there are readers of the News whom nothing can affect 
but mighty circumstances, — victories achieved, and cities 
taken, there are Christians, too, whom nothing will delight, 
but monarchies converted to the faith of Christ, but realms 
and empires conquered to the Lord. 'Tis true, this letter 
will not please their taste ; but the trifling details with 
which this letter is replenished, are not so valueless as 
they suppose, though their interest is less intense. They 
acquaint us with the character of foreign nations, as well 
as with observances of their religion, — with pains and 
perils which can never be removed from the missionary's 
way. Such have been the purposes of my epistle : I 
trust I have fulfilled them ; — thus I have the honour to 
remain, &c. 



THE SUPERIOR GENERAL 

TO 

FATHER FLEURIAU. 



July, 1723. 

We cannot be precipitate in telling you, that an order 
has been issued by the Grand Signior, and which a capigi 
has conveyed to the city of Aleppo, and to the other 
important towns in Syria, by which the Christians sub- 
ject to the Grand Signior are forbid to embrace the 
Catholic religion, and communication with Armenians, 
Greeks and Syrians, under pretext of giving them instruc- 
tion, is strictly forbidden to the missionary Latins. The 
same decree commands the Christian Greeks, Armenians, 
Syrians, subjects of the Grand Signior, in case they have 
quitted their ancient religion to become Roman Catholics, 
to abandon the religion they have recently received, and 
resume their original profession without loss of time. 
This command has been issued at the instigation and 
solicitation of the Schismatical Patriarchs of Constanti- 
nople, of Jerusalem, of Damascus, and of Antioch, who 
at the time in question were holding a synodical assembly 
in the city of Constantinople. 

g 5 



130 



PERSECUTION. 



The true motive which animated them was the chagrin 
they experienced at seeing the daily diminution of their 
followers and the augmentation of the flock of Jesus 
Christ, enriched as it was by the spoils of their schism* 
The Patriarch of Jerusalem, the most zealous of the par- 
tizans of the schism, was himself a witness of the progress 
of the Roman Catholic religion, when passing by the way 
of Damascus and Aleppo, he was repairing to Constanti- 
nople ; he witnessed the fervour of these infant churches 
with feelings of so painful a nature, that they could not 
be dissimulated. He related all the circumstances that 
he had seen to the Synod. This assembly was very 
careful to conceal the motive, by which its animosity was 
roused. When taking measures to solicit the command 
that he required, the Synod had recourse to calumny. 
It urged an accusation, of all others the most capable of 
exasperating the feelings of the Grand Signior and of his 
Vizier against the Roman Catholics. 

The Patriarchs assembled at the Synod represented to 
the Grand Vizier, that the missionary Franks, as they 
designated the missionary Catholics, were seducing their 
people everlastingly; who were the subjects of the Grand 
Signior, and that they made them change their creed, to 
embrace the profession of the Roman Catholics : and that 
they made themselves busy in giving them instructions, 
an office appertaining to the Patriarchs alone. Nothing 
more was required than this simple exposition, in order 
to procure the command that they requested, and in truth 
they obtained it with the utmost promptitude and ease* 

In consequence of this mandate, the Turkish officers* 
who always profit by the avanies imposed upon the 
Catholics put, the Bishop of Aleppo into prison, as well 



PERSECUTION. 



131 



as the Bishop of Seide, together with many priests and 
many seculars who were Catholic inhabitants of the cities 
of Aleppo, of Damascus, of Seide, and of Tripoli, threat- 
ening exile to some and destruction to others, unless they 
resume the religion of their Patriarch. 

Our Consul at Aleppo has communicated this com- 
mandment to us ; it has obliged us to suspend our missions, 
as well as the ordinary functions of our missionaries 
which for more than a century we have always exercised 
in this country. 

All France is well aware, that we have been sent hither 
by the order of our sovereigns as well as in their name, 
to preserve and maintain the Catholic Religion in this 
country. We have implicitly obeyed the orders which 
have been intimated to us on the part of the Porte, but 
we have recourse, at the same time to the piety of the 
King, the protector of the Catholic religion in this domain 
of infidelity. Our Kings, the predecessors of the present 
monarch on the throne of France, had always conceded 
in similar occasions their protection to our society 

The present affair has a more favourable aspect, than 
many which occupied us in anterior times ; as it is a 
matter of public notoriety, that the present command has 
been promulgated in consequence of misrepresentations* 

The schismatical Patriarchs accuse the Latin mission- 
aries of causing the Armenians, the Greeks and Syrians 
to change the religion which they formerly professed, 
though it is obvious to every one, that the subjects of 
the Grand Signior preserve precisely the same ritual, 
which they always held. Having the approbation of the 
Roman See and of the (Ecumenical Councils, their ritual 
is excellent, If there be an alteration, it is utterly internal. 



132 



INCARCERATION. 



and consists in nothing more for the most part, except in 
relinquishing certain superstitions as well as some parti- 
cular errors, which schism introduced amongst religionists 
and in professing certain Catholic truths, which had been 
hidden from them only by their ignorance. 

As to the allegations relating to the functions of our 
missionaries, those functions are in perfect conformity 
with ancient capitulations between France and the Otto- 
man-Porte, without our having made the slightest inno- 
vation. And so very far removed are the functions of 
our ministry from rendering the subjects of the Grand 
Signior disobedient to his Majesty, that the Turkish 
magistrates have frequently confessed that his Catholic 
lieges are more submissive than the Schismatics to the 
prince and to the government. My Rev. Father, we 
must beseech your representing this affair to his Majesty } 
that on this occasion the first fruits of his royal protec- 
tion may be conceded to ourselves, in order to impress 
upon the Turk, that the king will be quite as zealous a 
defender of the faith in the Levant, as the kings his pre- 
decessors, especially Louis the Fourteenth of glorious 
memory. During the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, 
the schismatics frequently surreptitiously obtained similar 
decrees, but his imperative commands dispatched instan- 
taneously to our ambassadors to require the revocation 
of such orders, were always executed with the happiest 
success. 

The Marquis de Chateauneuf, ambassador at the 
Ottoman court, obtained firmans for us before now, the 
friendliness of which to the Catholic religion infinitely 
exceeded the hostility of all those orders which the 
schismatics could at any time have purchased to the con- 



THE KING. 



133 



trary ; religion and the missionaries owe the Marquis 
everlasting obligations for his interference. His suceessor ? 
the Marquis de Feriol, in like manner succeeded in main- 
taining such privileges with all imaginable vigour. 
Sheltered by the Egis of their puissant influence, the 
missionaries enjoyed comparatively halcyon days, and 
exercised their ministry with the utmost freedom. We 
have the more reason to believe that this recent resolution 
can be easily revoked, as the Maronite sieur Abraham, 
who was honored by a cross of Knighthood by Louis the 
Fourteenth, in his journey to Paris, several years since, 
has had a sufficiency of influence to obtain the freedom, 
from the Grand Vizier, of the Roman Catholic prelates 
who had been incarcerated by the aga of Seide, and 
Osman, pacha of Damascus. We cannot for a moment 
doubt, my Rev. Father, but that your zeal for the work 
of God, the efficacy of which we have so frequently 
experienced, will urge you to supplicate the monarch to 
be so benevolent as to give his orders to the French 
ambassador, to request the revocation of the recent order 
in execution of our old capitulations. Their faithful 
execution will render our Catholics secure, will re establish 
the missionaries in their former functions, and will main- 
tain the Catholic faith in this place, which would be 
speedily and utterly annihilated in these realms of infide- 
lity were it deprived of the protection of our kings and 
the service of our missionaries. We elevate our hands 
to heaven to obtain from God that speedy succour which 
our religion now requires and the preservation of our 
youthful king, our puissant protector. — I remain with 
respect, my Rev. Father, your very humble and obedient 
servant, Piekxe Fromage, S. J. 



134 



PREACHING. 



The Count de Morville, the Minister and Secretary of 
state for Foreign affairs, has given the King an account 
of this last prohibition of the Grand Signior, and has 
been ordered by his Majesty to write on the subject to 
the Marquis of Bonnac, his majesty's ambassador to the 
Forte. 



LETTER FROM A MISSIONER IN GREECE. 

My Rev. Father, — We have the honor of sending you, 
in obedience to your orders, the narrative of our voyage 
from Marseilles to Smyrna. We have happily arrived 
in this city, and now having made our solemn acknow- 
ledgments to God for his continual protection on the seas, 
it is imperative upon us to make acknowledgments to 
you for the favour of being admitted amongst the work- 
men of the gospel, which, by your mediation, was obtained 
for us, and of participating in functions so conformable 
to our institute. 

And now these two first duties being complied with, 
we commence our recital by ingenuously confessing that 
our nature suffers much in those separations from our 
country, from our nation, and from those who are dear to us. 

But then, we feel all the force of our vocation on occa- 
sions such as this. The soul is penetrated by a secret 
consolation from our being in the place to which Heaven 
has invited us for the greater augmentation of the glory 
of our Lord, and to aid in the salvation of innumerable 
souls, who would utterly be lost if the Saviour of the 



THE VOYAGE. 



135 



world were not sending them incessantly persons who 
point out to them the pathway to his kingdom. 

For. to those nations amongst whom our lot is cast, the 
words should be applied in which St. Paid addressed the 
Romans — " How shall they believe him of whom they 
have not heard, and how shall they hear without a 
Preacher r' In this exercise of evangelical preaching it 
is, that our missionaries are continually occupied. Before 
I speak to you. Rev. Father, of our mission in Smyrna, 
the town in which we have debarked, I must give you 
some account of our departure from Marseilles, of our 
transit of the ocean, and of the places by which we passed. 

Having bidden you good bye at Paris, we proceeded 
to Marseilles, the place where we subsequently embarked. 
We spent a considerable time in waiting the departure 
of a certain good ship, which was always on the point of 
setting sail, and yet never left the port. Tired with this 
long delay, and regretting the vessels that we lost, we 
embarked on board a merchant ship, the crew of which 
was only 15 men. The captain was a worthy person. 
He was willing to convey us gratuitously, and promised 
to land us very speedily at Smyrna. The day of our 
departure being one of the finest we ever experienced, 
we had reason to anticipate that our captain would keep 
his word, but the winds upon the sea being quite as incon- 
stant as the most envied fortunes of the age we live in, 
we speedily experienced their fickleness, Our wind, at 
first so favourable, suddenly became so violent, that our 
sails and little vessel were violently agitated. We had 
the greatest difficulty in the world to keep our feet, or 
even to keep our seats. I will not describe the other 
inconveniencies which are commonly the consequences of 



136 



PLAGUE. 



such a situation, especially to those unaccustomed to the 
sea. We brought with us a young Surgeon, who had 
been appointed to accompany us, whose services we 
expected would be useful to the missioners ; for, by means 
of the medical profession, which is held in the highest 
estimation in the Levant, the protection of the Turkish 
officers is easily gained, and the mansions of the Christians 
are open to the word of God. This young man, who 
had never seen the sea, was so terrified by a violent gust 
of wind, that, conceiving himself lost, he came to me as 
pale as cream, and besought me with trembling accents 
to hear his confession instantaneously. I took advantage 
of his disposition, to induce him to perform a good work- 
A short time afterwards the wind subsided, and his fear 
subsided with precisely the same rapidity. However, 
violent this wind had been, we had no reason to complain 
of it, for its violence advanced us considerably towards 
our destination. On the third day after our departure, 
we doubled Saint Peter's isle, which lies at the very 
extremity of the Island of Sardinia. We contemplated 
this island as we passed it by with the utmost veneration, 
as a place to which so many holy Bishops had been 
banished, as well as so many other defenders of the faith, 
who gloriously terminated their lives in what might be 
considered as a long martyrdom. After having coasted 
the island of Sardinia, we conceived that our captain 
would put into Malta. But as he wanted no provisions, 
he took the resolution of leaving it to his right at 25 miles 
distance, but a sudden wind arose, whose fury occa- 
sioned much disorder on board our ship, and compelled 
the captain to make the island with an anxiety as great 
as that with which he had sought to avoid it. Our vessel 



GRAND MASTER. 



137 



sailed into the harbour at an hour so early, that we had 
a sufficiency of time to reach the residence of the Jesuits. 
We were received there with the utmost friendship and 
cordiality. We saw Father De la Motte, the confessor 
of the French Knights, and another Father, appointed to 
teach the mathematics ; the latter died at Marseilles in 
the service of the Pestiferous, since the period of our visit. 

My companion, who was sick, was speedily restored 
by the kind attention of the priests, and by the care which 
was taken of him by the chevalier de Sarasse, who is 
perfectly acquainted with the science of medicine, and 
who honored us with his friendship. Our captain, who 
was compelled to remain much longer than he wished at 
Malta, allowed us a sufficiency of time to see every thing 
that merits a stranger's curiosity in this island. 

Two of the Fathers obligingly proposed to play the 
part of Ciceroni. We took advantage of their kindly 
disposition. I shall have the honor of assuring you, my 
Rev. Father, that, like every other visitor, we were 
charmed with the beauty of the island, its advantageous 
situation, the construction of the city, which is built upon 
a rock, that is well nigh perpendicular, and defended by 
fortifications of such a nature as render it the very 
strongest place in Europe. 

After having visited and viewed all that merited at- 
tention, whether in the islands or the towns, I must ac- 
knowledge that I saw nothing more worthy of applause 
and admiration than the wisdom of the reigning govern- 
ment — than the exact order which prevails throughout- — 
than the noble and edifying conduct of the Cavaliers? 
united to their humble and elegant politeness to all man- 
ner of people, and especially to visitors. The people 



138 



KNIGHTS OE ST. JOHN. 



endeavour to imitate this politeness of their masters as 
far as possible. 

The grand master commands in the quality of king ? 
with reference to the people, and as a superior as to the 
members of the order. 

He has at his court continually many Cavaliers, of the 
most ancient and the most illustrious houses in all Chris- 
tendom ; for there is no distinguished family in Europe? 
which does not feel a pride in having its members in the 
order of Saint John. 

The sea separates the town of Malta into three se- 
veral divisions ; these three portions are three towns and 
three peninsulas. They are fortified by the natural 
rocks by which they are surrounded, and art and nature 
have helped one another so happily and mutually, that a 
single feeble part has not been left in which an attack 
could be possibly attempted. 

The principal city is the one in which the grand master 
resides ; it is called La Valette. The isle in which the 
house of the inquisitor is situate, is called Le Bourg ; 
the third is entitled the island of St. Michael. The port 
which contains the gallies of the order is the most consi. 
derable for size ; it is defended by the castle of St. Elma 
upon one side, and by the castle of St. Angel on the 
other. These two fortresses, towering at the entrance, 
guard the gallies effectually. I have been conversing 
w ith persons who informed me, that the pieces of cannon 
they had counted on the ramparts — which are designed 
for the defence of the city and the port — are 1800 in 
number — a number which has teen since augmented. 
On the land side the city has got two enceintes ; its for- 
tifications are cut and fashioned in the solid rock ; the 



THE KNIGHTS. 



139 



mansions present the appearance of amphitheatres. Every 
dwelling has its platform, which is intended to prevent 
the ill effects of a bombardment ; for in case of a siege, 
they should cover this platform, which constitutes the 
roof, with a mass of mould and dung, which would re- 
ceive the bombs upon its surface, and deaden the effects 
of the tremendous missiles. The city is exceedingly 
well-built ; its houses are commodious, and elegantly 
ornamented ; but it would seem as if the island had 
combined all its magnificence when building a superb 
and stupendous hospital, where all manner of diseased 
persons, of whatsoever nation, condition, or religion they 
may be, are receiv r ed, attended, supported, and supplied 
with all things which they may require, gratuitously. 

Though the order be in its institution a military order, 
the Knights are not the less hospitallers on that account, 
and the order, in all times, has constantly and carefully 
conserved this cherished end of its establishment ; for, 
whilst the Cavaliers are girt for ever for the combat, 
and are never without arms in their hands to fight the 
foemen of our faith, at the same time they are ready 
everlastingly to extend their charity to every object of 
compassion that comes near their hospital. And that all 
the Cavaliers may have it in their power to practise this 
most precious duty, every hotel or priory has a day 
marked out for it, which its members shall devote to the 
service of the sick. Monday belongs to the knights of 
Provence ; the hotel of France has Tuesday ; Wed- 
nesday belongs to the hotel of Auvergne ; Thursday 
appertains to the hotel of Castile ; the hotel of Arragon 
has Friday ; Saturday belongs to the hotel of Italy ; and 
that of Germany has Sunday. The sick are served in- 



140 



THE KNIGHTS. 



variably in valuable vessels of solid silver. Every 
morning the grand master, followed by the grand cross, 
pays a visit to the hospital (a duty which he sometimes 
complies with after dinner), in order to know personally 
whether the commanders do their duty by the sick ; 
whether the patients are well taken care of, and want 
nothing that may be necessary in their situation. When 
any of the Knights are in the number of the ailing, they 
are attended by the grand master himself. I do not 
think that any thing in the universe can be seen more 
edifying, than the extreme order invariably observed in 
the hospital. The charity of the Cavaliers ascends some- 
times to so sublime a height, that many amongst them 
may be seen performing such acts of virtue as are only 
to be compared to those which we admire in the very 
greatest saints.* The Bishop of Malta, the Prior of the 
Church of St. John, and the Grand Inquisitor, have each 
their separate jurisdiction in the spiritual department. 
The Prior, or rector of the Cavaliers, has the principal 
authority, which extends to the power of conferring 
orders. He has other powers, which only appertain to 
Bishops in almost all other instances. He wears epis- 
copal ornaments, approves of the confessors of the Cava- 
liers, and gives dimissorials to the clerks of the order. 

The Bishop has his residence at Citta Vecchia. He 
has a very handsome church. Like their bishop, the 
canons wear a violet camail. The first church of the 
order is that of St. John, as well as the most richly orna- 

* A very good edition of the History of the Knights, those heroic 
disciples of religion and chivalry ; translated from the French of Ver- 
tot, was published by Christie, James's-street, Dublin, to which, if 
indeed it be not out of print, I venture to direct the attention of my 
countrymen. — T. A. P. 



THE KNIGHTS. 



141 



mented. We saw two large silver figures, of the human 
height, the one a St. John, and the other a St. Luke ; 
they stand one at either side of the grand altar. Be- 
tween the choir and the nave there swings a silver 
lustre, which, they say, has cost 60,000 Maltese crowns. 
It is a gift from the commander, Fardello de Trapano. 
Every tongue has a particular chapel in the church ; the 
French Knights one, the German Knights another, &c. 
The very finest and most highly polished marble in- 
crusts the internal surface of these chapel walls. 

We saw an extremely handsome chapel dedicated to 
the great apostle Paul, in the suburbs of Citta Vecchia. 
There is a cave beside this chapel, wdiither, according to 
tradition, the apostle retired for three months and three 
days, subsequently to his shipwreck.* The Acts of the 
Apostles, which communicate the circumstances of the 
ship wreck, have informed us of another fact ; Paul and his 
dripping companions, having lighted a great fire, were 
spreading out their saturated garments, from which the 
brine was wrung, to its comfortable influence, when a viper 
issuing from the faggots, sprang upon the hand of Paul, 
and adhered to it with such tenacity, that the shipwrecked 
witnesses believed that the puncture of the poisonous 
tooth of this venomous creature would cause the apostle's 
death. But their surprise was inexpressible, when they 
saw the saint had but to shake his hand, in order to get 
rid of it, and that the member remained as destitute of 
injury as it had been previously. This circumstance 
caused the apostle to be considered by the marvelling 
Maltese as a very extraordinary personage. 



* Chap. 21. 



142 



FOSSILS. 



Malta has enjoyed a remarkable and almost singular 
privilege since this event. Vipers and venomous reptiles, 
which in almost every other country are poison-bearers, 
are innoxious in Malta,*such malignant creatures are even 
said to lose their venom if introduced into this island from 
other countries. 

It is by no means incredible^ that this favor was granted 
to the isle of Malta, to recompense its inhabitants for the 
good reception given to St. Paul, the especial object of 
public devotion and veneration in this island.f 

Fossils, which are designated serpents' tongues, and 
serpent's eyes,! are not only found in the cave of St. Paul, 
but throughout all the island. Travellers never fail to 
carry some away with them, it being the popular opinion 
that they are preservatives against the ill-eifects of poison. 
What is still more surprising is, that however great the 
quantity removed, these fossil tongues and eyes are appa- 
rently by no means diminished in number by the perpe- 
tual abstractions. The very same thing is said of the floor 
of the apostle's cave, insomuch that the earth seems to 
reproduce them as rapidly as they are removed. » 

* In the opinion of some commentators, the island at which,A.D. 
66, St. Paul was shipwrecked, is Meleda, situated in the Adriatic, 
the Latin of which is the same as that of Malta, viz. Melita. 

f We learn from the Acts of the Apostles, that there were veno- 
mous reptiles in the isle of Malta, in the first century of the Christian 
era. We learn from the geography of Maltebrun and Mentelle, vol. 
viii. p. 522, that there are none in it at present. That this latter 
circumstance is a consequence of the apostle's visit, is a fact which 
the missioner believes, and which, as he observes, is by no means 
incredible. 

J These so called serpents' tongues are the fossil teeth of fishes, 
of the sea dog kind. The " serpents' eyes" are likewise fishes teeth, 
spares and centropomes. They are really inexhaustible, because the 
soil is almost entirely composed of them — T. A. P. 



MALTA. 



143 



To return to our account of Malta : it is seven leagues 
in length, three half in width, and twenty-one in cir- 
cuit. The solid rock is so near the surface throughout 
almost all the island, that it is fertile only in legumes, but 
the quality of these is exquisite. Towering forests and 
extensive vineyards cannot be expected ; but the orange, 
the olive, and the lemon-tree, are very common, and their 
fruits delicious. We saw almond-trees in flower in the 
month of January. 

A country so very agreeable as Malta, well deserves 
the immense population it possesses. The Maltese speak 
the Arabic, slightly corrupted. The men are all clothed 
in the French fashion, but some wear a little collar in 
addition, and a large black mantle. Priests and monks 
are very numerous. The women and young girls never 
go out alone; they are always followed by a female slave 
or attendant when they are seen abroad. Their dress 
and demeanour is so very modest, that a stranger might 
mistake them for so many nuns. They are generally 
seen wrapt in a black serge or silk mantle, which covers 
them from head to foot. 

To finish my account of Malta, I shall add, that its 
greatest glory and its principal ornament is the great 
number of illustrious knights, whose valour is o.nly to be 
equalled by their birth, winch it possesses. They have 
the honor of being the zealous defenders of our holy faith, 
ever ready at a moment's warning to traverse the seas, 
and peril their existence in defence of it. 

In their history we read with the utmost admiration, 
the account which is given of their great exploits, and of 
the prodigious successes of their arms. But the principle 
subject of a eulogy which shall be worthy of them, will 



144 



MALTA. 



be that at present as well as in anterior times in their 
home upon the rock of Malta, as well as every where else 
throughout the world, the knights have been known, 
invariably to practise the purest and sublimest virtues 
inculcated by Christianity. 

Down to the present hour, the knights continue to 
confer infinite honor on the Catholic religion.* 

Malta is governed, at present by a Grand Master, who 
eminently merits that good eminence. The prudence 
capacity, and benevolence displayed in his rule, have 
gained him the love and veneration of all Christian nations, 
and swell his ranks incessantly by new accessions of 
knights. 

During our abode at Malta, our vessel was perfectly 
refitted. Having been informed of the day of our depar- 
ture by the captain. We bade a farewell to our fathers, 
making them a thousand acknowledgements for the 
kindnesses we had experienced at their hands. Though 
it was winter, the air was as mild as if it were summer. 
The wind was favourable, and as our vessel ploughed 
the rippling deep, the sun which shone without a cloud 
sheathed the surface of the ocean, with the splendour of 
its effulgence. A troop o£ dolphins, feeling the comfor- 
table warmth of the atmosphere, gamboled together at 
the prow of our ship. We saw them often in the air, 
as they bounded now and then joyously from the water, 
our vessel continuing on her way at the same rate. We 

* Prompted by a profligate cupidity, which insatiate of the world, 
and unglutted by the plunder of the sea, coveted the little realm of 
the Knights, England doomed herself to everlasting infamy by re- 
fusing to restore the last sanctuary of chivalry to its rightful posses- 
sors. The conquest of Algiers by the French, must speedily deprive 
her of the advantages expected from it. Meanwhile, the banner of 
St. John still flutters on the winds of Muscovy. — T. A. P. 



SAPIEXZA. 



145 



enjoyed this spectacle a length of time : an alteration in 
the weather, however, changed the face of things, and 
made us lose this enjoyment. There arose a tremendous 
wind, which happily was in our rear, compelling our bark 
to cut the waves with such velocity, that we should have 
reached Smyrna in four days if the storm had continued 
so long. The following night we deviated from our 
course, and we were so far from reaching Smyrna, that 
we were obliged to drop anchor at the isle of Sapienza. 

This island is at the extreme point of the Morea, at the 
southern side It is only a league from Modon, the capi- 
tal of the province of Betuedere, in the Morea. As this 
sea is infested frequently with pirates, none of our fellow- 
travellers dared to quit the vessel, to pay a visit to the 
town of Modon ; we were content to walk upon the shore 
in order to breathe the fresh air of the island. Curiosity 
should never lead a traveller to visit it, for nothing is to 
be seen in this island but a few Arabs herding goats ; we 
met neither houses, villages, nor towns. They have made 
excavations in the rocks, in which they reside, together 
with their flocks, like absolute savages. 

One day, walking with one of my companions in this 
island; we perceived two men approaching us with asto- 
nishing velocity, we could see them penetrating the thickets 
just like cannon balls, and ascending the rocks and pas- 
sing over them with the celerity of goats ; we could see 
that their persons were as barbarous as their costume — 
they were gigantic Albanians, and were armed with 
immense sticks, crooked at the end, and shod with iron. 
Bounding into our presence, and heated with their race, 
they asked us in a ferocious tone, and in a jargon which 

H 



146 



ALBANIANS. 



was worthy of their voices, who we were, and whither 
we were going. We answered in a tone which was in- 
finitely sweeter than that in which they had addressed us 
(and which might have shewn the barbarians how gentle- 
men should speak)that we were Frenchmen, that we were 
destined for the isles ef Greece, and that our bark was 
lying at anchor in the harbour. The Albanians, without 
saying a syllable by way of answer, broke off abruptly, and 
we saw them ascending a height, from the apex of which 
they endeavoured to descry our vessel. 

We related our adventure to our fellow-travellers as 
soon as we returned. The next day one of them, who, 
as he assured us, dreaded nothing in the universe, and 
who in particular had no fear whatever, he averred, for 
" those sorts of gentlemen," had the curiosity to descend 
into the isle to reconnoitre them. He had hardly gone 
a musket shot, when our two Albanians, with two others 
in their company, as unprepossessing in personal ap- 
pearance as themselves, threw themselves upon him, and 
collared him before he could offer any resistance ; and 
then, as the whole four were about him, they tied him to 
a tree, with his hands behind his back. " It's you, then," 
they vociferated ; " you're the fellow," they shouted, 
" that fired upon our floc]ks ; it shall cost you your life," 
they continued, meanwhile one of them discovered an enor- 
mous knife, which he applied to the neck of the tra- 
veller, as a caution to quietness, while the others were 
diving into the innermost recesses of his pockets. They 
appropriated the contents, whatever they might be, and 
then stripping him of his clothing, left him nothing what- 
soever but his shirt. Having gathered up their plunder, 
three of them set off with the spoils, and when they 



MALMSEY, 



147 



were out of sight; the fourth who had remained to guard 
the prisoner, untied him and ran away in the direction 
taken by his companions. Our traveller, whose bravery 
was ball proof, attracted universal attention by the very 
remarkable alteration which his morning's promenade 
had produced in his attire. From the deck of the ves- 
sel every eye was fixed upon him as he approached the 
ship, arrayed in the single garment which the robbers 
left him. He was fortunate enough to find persons suf- 
ficiently charitable to give him those garments of which 
he stood in so much need. None of our fellow-travel- 
lers after this adventure, and during the four days that 
we waited for a favourable breeze, felt the slightest pro- 
pensity to seek the recreation and amusement afforded 
by the wholesome exercise of walking in the island, 
which is so truly entitled Sapienza, an exercise which 
had anteriorly yielded them so much pleasure. 

At six o'clock in the morning on the 20th of January, 
our vessel took the breeze. We surveyed the Morea 
which was only at four leagues distance from us, while 
the vessel coasted its illustrious shores. 

We passed at a little distance of Cor on — we doubled 
the cape of Matupan, and found ourselves between Ceri- 
go and cape St. Angel, on the morning of the twenty- 
first, and a little after Malmsey, or Malvasia, became 
discernible, which is the best neighbourhood, despite its 
name, in all the Morea, it is said. 

This city was anciently called Epidaurus ; it stands 
upon a great rock at the foot of which the gulf of Na- 
poli d'Romani commences. That eastern shore pro- 
duces that incomparable Malmsey of which the very 
name is eulogy. We eventually emerged from the 



148 



THE VISIT. 



Morea to enter amid the isles of Grecian Archipelago, 
leaving Canciia to our right. 

The weather had been hitherto as hot as summer, 
but a northern wind having suddenly arisen, we felt it 
bitter cold. We found it expedient to procure capotes 
or mantles in which to ensconce ourselves from its 
severity. The snow-covered heights of the Morea shed 
this frigidity upon us — the cold excepted, we derived ad- 
vantage from the wind, as in consequence of it we were 
debarking the next day at the port of Paros, at a league 
from Naxos. Unhappily, however, it did not continue 
very long. Onr captain thought it necessary to put in 
at Argentaria, a little island in the Archipelago, between 
Melo and Siphanto. We had hardly cast anchor in the 
port, which is a tolerably good one, when two Greeks of 
the isle, with a very graceful air, approached us ; they 
came on the part of the Consul of France, they said, to 
present us with his compliments on our arrival, and to 
make us an offer of refreshments. 

We received this politeness with all the acknowledge- 
ments it merited, and we thought it only set down in our 
duty to wait upon the Consul and offer our acknowledge- 
ments in return ; we desired the two Greeks to conduct 
us to him which they immediately did. The Consul's 
residence is at three quarters of a league from the port 
— we found him in the company of the Consul of Eng- 
land ; both of them are natives of the country, and their 
families are the most respectable in the island. They 
received us with the utmost politeness. When the first 
compliments were exchanged, a collation was served up^ 
The Consul of France proposed to shew us the city — 
we were accompanied by both these gentlemen — it did 



SMALL TOWN. 



149 



not require any extraordinary length of time to traverse 
it, for the whole city consists simply of an hundred and 
fifty houses, and eight or nine hundred persons constitute 
its population. The streets are so narrow that two men 
can with difficulty walk through them abreast. We found 
some French families who carry on a petty commerce in 
this place, which is not so much a town as a village. The 
French were speedily informed of our arrival — the haste 
with which they thronged to see us was only to he 
equalled by their joy. They were delighted at so good 
an opportunity of obtaining news of France, we satisfied 
all their interrogatories ; the very oldest news, facts of 
no small antiquity, had all the charms of novelty for them. 
The priests and the principle Greeks of the city visited 
us subsequently, and testified the pleasure that they ex- 
perienced in seeing us, by the kindest expressions. They 
asked tvith earnestness if we were come to establish a 
mission amongst them ; we have not forgotten, they ex- 
claimed, the mission which Father Xavier Portier and his 
coadjutor established several years ago amongst us ; our 
children had been illiterate, and they rendered them well 
informed ; many of ourselves were mutually enemies and 
they made peace and reconciled us ; we had ceased to 
live like christians, and they induced us to confess our 
sins to them and to approach the Holy Sacrament, to 
which we had been strangers for so long an interval ; in 
a word, they made us know our duties. Since that 
period we have all deviated from the paths of peace into 
which they had conducted us. Come, they continued, and 
induce us to return, come and restore us that spiritual 
joy which the presence of Father James Xavier Portier 
diffused amongst our citizens, and which through his 



150 



ARGEKTAR1A. 



absence we have lost. These words which we saw issuing' 
from their very heart strings moved us almost to tears, 
we replied that we were come from France with every 
disposition to be of service to them, but that not know- 
ing the language yet sufficiently, we were about to learn 
it, that we might be intelligible to them. They were 
satisfied with our replies. The bad weather which had 
caused us to put into Argentaria kept us there for two 
days without the slightest possibility of our quitting it 
Lest we should be useless, we gave instructions to the 
French inhabitants, and taught their children their cate- 
chism. The Greeks and French assisted at our masses 
— a good example was given by the officers of our vessel, 
and by the mariners and travellers who never omitted their 
attendance ; we were consoled by these good works for the 
delay in our departure. We took advantage of the first 
fine weather to quit the harbour of Argentaria. In the 
evening of that day we cast anchor at Siphanto, anciently 
Siphnos, a larger and a richer isle than that of Argenta- 
ria. We departed early the next morning with a favour- 
able wind, which brought us in the evening of this day 
to Miconi. This is one of the Cyclades in the Egean 
Sea ; on arriving here we learned that a considerable 
number of Roman Catholics resided in the island — we 
procured a guide to conduct us to the rector, to request 
his permission to say mass. Although he was a Greek 
by nation, the rector observed the Latin ritual : he was sup- 
ported by the Propaganda for the service of the Roman 
Catholics. Informed of our arrival, his parishioners 
crowded round us to salute us with their curate amongst 
them ; we were received by them with the utmost cordi- 
ality and warmth of feeling. They spoke much of the 



FAVOURABLE WIND. 



151 



mission which Father Portier had instituted in their 
island several years ago : we sadly want a second, said 
they: if he knew our wants he would come speedily to 
our assistance, as he was full of zeal for our salvation. 
We pledged ourselves to obtain them the new mission 
they desired, and next morning Ave said mass for them. 
A great multitude was present, and the devotion with 
which they assisted at the sacrifice delighted us. As we 
neither knew the vulgar Greek, nor their corrupt Italian, 
we could afford them no instruction: we said a few 
words to them, however, by means of an interpreter. 
After remaining in this island four and twenty hours, we 
took our leave of the rector ; he was anxious to accom- 
pany us to our vessel at the head of his parishioners, 
conjuring us at the same time to return to the island with 
all speed, and we embarked in presence of them all, and 
with so favourable a wind that we made forty leagues in 
fourteen hours. We arrived at the isles of Spalmodori, 
February 16th, having passsed within a cannon-shot of 
Scio. My two companions were as anxious as myself 
to see this island, excited, as they were, by all that we 
had learned of the fervid devotion of its Roman Catholic 
inhabitants. However, at this time, our desires could not 
possibly be gratified: we continued our course through 
the Archipelago, and emerging from its numerous isles, 
we steered for Anatolia, in Asia, I thought when quit- 
ting France, that we should find in the Levant an ever- 
lasting summer, only varied now and then by excessive 
heats. Experience convinced us of the contrary, for we 
suffered the sharpest and most penetrating cold in this 
day's sail, which compelled our officers to assume clothing 
of a warmer character. As we were at one day's sail 



152 



SALUTE. 



from Smyrna, we anticipated making the harbour, but 
the wind died away so completely that we could scarcely 
make sail at all. We had to encounter another difficulty 
— we discovered, at the dawn of day, five Turkish men 
of war which were proceeding from Constantinople to 
Scio. A Sultana having thirty guns separated from her 
four companions and approaching our ship, commanded us 
to come on board. As we were by no means the stronger- 
party we deemed it advisable to yield obedience and 
without uttering as much as a single syllable in remon- 
strance, we complied with the command with the utmost 
alacrity. 

The commander of the Sultana caused our captain to 
to ascend his ship, but, exchange is no robbery, he sent 
three Turks on board our vessel in return, luckily they 
they found nothing contraband on board, and when they 
had reported the condition of our vessel, the captain of 
the Turkish man of war overwhelmed our commander 
with interrogatories as to the state of Sicily and Malta 
and then restored him to us : upon his return our cap- 
tain exhibited exemplary politeness by saluting the 
Turkish vessel with the discharge of a solitary gun, the 
Turks returned the salute and continued on their course. 
A contrary wind delayed us for some time in entering 
the gulf of Smyrna. At length an auspicious moment 
arrived, in which we were enabled to double the Cape 
of Borun, (situated at the extremity of the gulf of 
Smyrna ;) we were charmed at the prospect which the 
gulf presented. The gulf is fifteen leagues in length 
and five in latitude — its coasts are crowned with olive 
trees. In perspective we saw a great number of ves- 
sels riding at anchor near the shores, while the magnifi- 



SMYRNA. 



153 



cent vista formed by the ships and olive-covered shores 
was terminated by the town of Smyrna, lying at the 
bottom of the gulf. We arrived at noontide, February 
23. Our voyage lasted seventy-five days, and was 
performed during a very severe winter — thank heaven 
we arrived in perfect health in Smyrna. The superior 
of our mission, father Adrian Verzeau, and the other 
French fathers, had long expected our arrival. Having 
learned that a vessel was entering the bay, they imme- 
diately imagined that we were on board — they came 
down to the port to see the debarkation. I cannot ex- 
press to you how great was our mutual joy ; we embraced 
one another with the most heart-whole affection. They 
led us to their mansion and supplied us with all the re- 
freshments of which we could possibly have any need. 
After a few days' repose, father Adrian Verzeau brought 
us to the house of the archbishop that we might offer him 
our respects as well as to the dwelling of Mr. De Fon- 
tenue, the French Consul — we were received with the 
utmost kindness and civility ; the succeeding days were 
passed in visits ; we received those of our disciples, and 
we returned their visits. The affection they evinced for 
us was an evidence of the sincere veneration which they 
entertain for our missionary Fathers ; the services 
rendered by the latter to the French, the Armenians, 
and the Greeks, have procured them the confidence and 
the esteem of those nations. 

The protection which Mr. De Fontenu affords our 
functions, and the attentions of the French gentlemen 
who reside here, whom we cannot praise too highly, in- 
spire the people with the sentiments which they enter- 
tain with reference to the missionaries. After we had 

h 5 



154 



SMYRNA. 



satisfied civility, we applied ourselves exclusively to the 
study of the languages, in order to participate in the ever- 
lasting labours of our missionaries. For it is by the fer- 
vour by which we are animated in the commencement 
that we are able to surmount the difficulties inseparable 
from this study, which is so much the more necessary, as 
we can only hope to make our ministry fruitfully being 
familiar with the language of the inhabitants. We have 
the consolation of finding much more occupation in Smyrna 
than in France ; none have failed to find such occupation, 
except such persons as have likewise failed in applying 
themselves opportunely to philological pursuits. The 
solitary town of Smyrna presents the missioners an exten- 
sive field, in which there are many harvests to be made. 
This city had the honor, in former times, of being entitled 
the first of the Seven Churches of Asia. The general 
councils of the country were held here. It is even still 
one of the most celebrated cities in the Ottoman empire ; 
commerce flourishes in Smyrna — the gulf is almost per- 
petually crowded with ships from France, England, Hol- 
land, Venice, and Genoa. They come hither to export 
Persian silk, the camlets of Angora, cotton, oil, tobacco, 
and scammony. A great quantity of these merchandizes 
are conveyed by Armenians overland. The city is of con- 
siderable size. An old castle which towers over the sea 
is the only defence of Smyrna : three gallies and 200 
Janissaries constitute the guard. The population consists 
of 60,000 persons, or thereabouts, and is composed of 
Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and Franks. Each 
nation resides in a separate quarter allotted solely to itself. 
The quarter of the Franks, which extends along the sea- 
shore, is unquestionably the finest. The city consists 



BAZAARS. 



155 



almost exclusively of wooden houses, but since the late 
conflagrations have visited the city, they have employed 
better materials in rebuilding them. The mosques are not 
beautiful; the bazaars infinitely surpass their religious 
houses. The former are long streets which contain no- 
thing but shops from one end to the other. The mer- 
chants spread out their different merchandizes with as 
much art in the bazaars, as could be exhibited in the gal- 
leries of the Palais at Paris. This industrious arrange- 
ment,and the ingenious disposal of their goods, excite the cu- 
riosity, and provoke the desire of the purchaser. The light 
is admitted to these shops only by an opening from above 
entering by an aperture in the roof. These roofs or domes 
covered with lead, protect the merchants and their mer- 
chandize, as well as those who buy from exposure to the 
weather. Smyrna had ancient monuments in other times 
which contributed to her glory ; but the Turks, who feel 
no curiosity concerning antiquity, have suffered them to 
perish. We must especially regret the almost total ruin 
of an amphitheatre, in which innumerable martyrs gene- 
rously devoted their existence as a sacrifice for the defence 
our religion. But time, the universal destroyer, whom 
nothing can escape, has been unable to obliterate the pre- 
cious memory of St. Polycrap the martyr. At the vene- 
rated age of 86, when he had governed that church to 
which St. John had sent him for 60 years ; as a trium- 
phant crown at the end of his career, St. Poly carp was 
burned alive; whilst with his heart in his voice he blessed 
God aloud with gratitude for the grace of martyrdom 
which he thus granted him. He is honored by the Chris- 
tians here as their common father, and their protector 
next to God, and they visit the relics of the amphitheatre 



156 



LABOURS. 



in which his venerated ashes repose from sentiments of 
respect and devotion for the martyr. The memory of 
a young man named Germanicus, who, at the same time 
was exposed to the beasts for Jesus Christ, is honored 
by them in like manner. These stupendous examples of 
heroic courage, and those afforded by our former mis- 
sionaries who followed in their footprints, are powerful 
motives to an evangelic life. 

I shall not pause, my reverend father, to give you the 
detail of their achievements here, because in doing so I 
should reiterate what has been related in Father Taril- 
Ion's epistle. As to what concers myself I must be con- 
tented to limit my labours to the study of the languages 
—I have already ventured to teach the children their 
catechism, and I hope to be able in a little time, with 
God's assistance, to aid our Fathers in those labours 
which at present overwhelm them the live long day, and 
sometimes extend into the night. While writing this 
letter, I am requested, upon their part, to demand addi- 
tional labourers from you, a request to which I add my 
humble voice, as, since my arrival, I have seen the neces- 
sity of an addition in the number of missionaries in this 
flourishing mission. 

Our superior dedicates all his time to the instruction 
of the slaves, who are very numerous in Smyrna. He 
takes advantage of their exceeding misery to induce 
some to return to the pleasant ways of salvation, from 
which even the orthodox so often stray, and others to 
enter the bosom of the church. One of the very oldest 
of our missionaries who has reached the venerable age 
of seventy, and who has spent full forty years in the 
labours of the mission^ supports the heat and toil of 



THE MISSIOXEES. 



157 



the day with the invincible courage of a true hero of 
the cross. This venerable man was taken prisoner by 
the cruel Algerines some years ago, and sold to slavery? 
a condition which he suffered for two years space with 
the fortitude and enduring patience of a martyr. We 
have since been so unhappy as to suffer two losses, in 
the persons of Father Francis L'Estringant, a native of 
Orleans, and of Father Francis Braconnier, of the pro- 
vince of Champagne. The first entered the society with a 
fervid desire to consecrate his life to the service of his 
neighbour and of God in the foreign missions. He was 
destined for those which we have in the Levant. He 
was naturally endowed with all the qualities which are 
calculated to gain souls to religion, and during the forty 
years that he has been employed upon our missions he 
has made a most advantageous use of his qualifications, 
perfectly performing the functions of an excellent mis- 
sionary, and of a sage, and experienced superior. He 
has often risked his life in the service of the plague-sick. 
He was attacked more than once with the pest, having 
received it in their service. His recovery was said to 
be some thing miraculous. He has had the glory of suf- 
fering imprisonment and chains for the cause of Jesus 
Christ — for performing an act of charity. He took no 
relaxation, he never ceased to labour in the vineyard 
of the Lord, till he had attained an extreme old age. 
Full of years aud virtues, he has recently died in the 
service of this mission. The death of Father Bracon- 
nier was an universal loss, affecting all our missions. 
They destined him in France for the first employment 
in his province, when providence called him to his service 
here. He succeeded in arriving at Smyrna after having 



158 



THE JESUIT. 



triumphed over all the obstacles which they opposed to 
his departure. The talents which God had given him 
for learning languages made him quickly capable of 
teaching the children their catechism, and shortly after- 
wards of hearing confession, of preaching and attending 
the conferences. He succeeded in these departments in 
a manuer which gained him great reputation — he has 
been honored with the esteem of our ambassadors. 
They found him to be a man of excellent judgment, of 
great rectitude of principle and probity of thinking, 
cherishing an ardent love of virtue, and having a great 
capacity for business, with that desirable gift, the utmost 
firmness in the execution. From all these rare qualities 
he was judged qualified for government. After having 
directed some particular missions, he was appointed su- 
perior of all those of Greece. The mission of Smyrna 
which he so much loved, is deeply indebted to him — our 
establishment at Constantinople owes him equal obliga- 
tions. He had the affliction of seeing a part of it con- 
sumed by the fire which reduced a considerable number 
of houses in the suburb of Galata to ashes some years 
since. In this calamity Father Braconnier had rceourse 
to the bounty and liberality of the gentlemen conduct- 
ing the commerce of Marseilles, the benefactors of all 
the Levantine missions. He obtained permission from 
the Ottoman powers, by whom he was known and esteem- 
ed, to repair what the fire had destroyed, and to him the 
glory appertains of restoring our house to the excellent 
condition in which it is at present. You are well aware, 
my reverend Father, that after having governed our 
missions during several successive years, he enterprised 
the establishment of that which we have at Salonica, in 



SPIRITUAL HARVEST. 



159 



Macedonia. This worthy missionary, having been in- 
formed that the christians who inhabit this city and the 
neighbouring country, were destitute of all spiritual as- 
sistance for working out their salvation, and knowing 
that much good might be done, instantaneously repaired 
to Salonica, supported by the hope alone, that God would 
enable him to find the necessary means of commencing 
this good work, if it were conformable to the divine will. 
He did not deceive himself, the work was instituted and 
perfected by the cares of Father Braconnier — by the 
liberality of certain christians of the country, and by the 
services of several French gentlemen, as well as of the 
Consul of the nation of France. As the commencement 
and the progress of this novel mission has been detailed 
to you already, I may dispense with its description. I 
understand that Father Francis Tarillon having succeed- 
ed the late Father Braconnier, and that having Father 
Xavier Piperi, a native of Scio, as his companion, the 
pious adventurers are reaping an abundant harvest in this 
mission. A virtuous lady who is very zealous for God's 
glory has given them the means of instituting an estab- 
lishment which is calculated to inspire their disciples 
with a tender devotion for the august sacrament of our 
altars. This lady felt herself inspired to institute cer- 
tain public prayers which are repeated evening and morn- 
ing, on the Thursdays of every week, in our chapeL 
The Holy Sacrament is exposed, and our Catholics re- 
pair in crowds to honor it, they assist at our sacred mys- 
teries, and are present at the instructions which our mis- 
sionaries give upon the divine Eucharist. The lady of 
whom we have spoken, persuaded that the decoration of 
the altars contributes not a little to the piety of christians 



160 



the Jesuit's death. 



employs many persons in fabricating ornaments which she 
presents to this flourishing mission, the foundation of 
which was laid by Father Braconnier. This clergyman 
was thinking of nothing but the cultivation of his mis- 
sion, when he received an order from the Father Gene- 
ral to proceed to Persia, in order to succeed the superior 
of our missions in that kingdom who had recently de- 
parted. However great the attachment of Father Bra- 
connier for his mission at Salonica, he immediately aban- 
doned it, prefering obedience to his own inclination. 

In spite of indisposition, which would have retained 
any one in the world but himself, and in spite of a pre- 
sentiment that his days would be shortened by this jour- 
ney ; feeble as he was, he set out for Persia — he suffered 
much in endeavouring to attain the Dardanelles. As 
soon as he set foot on shore, the Consul, who was always 
a bosom friend of his, received him with a warm embrace, 
conducting him to his mansion that he might reside there. 
That which was, comparatively speaking, but a slight 
sickness at first, in a few days afterwards became a mor- 
tal malady. He dispatched a request to a religious per- 
son who was renowned far and near for his sanctity, 
who happened at this time to be sojourning at the Dar- 
danelles, to come and visit him and receive his ]ast sighs. 
He received the rites of religion with sentiments which 
Jiis departing voice conveyed to those around him, who 
felt convinced, as they regarded him, that that decent 
pallet was pressed by the ashes of a saint. He finally 
gave up his soul to God, by offering him the sacrifice of 
a life which had always been devoted to him. 

I beg of you, my reverend father, to supplicate the 
Lord, that having come here to work out the salvation 



SKETCHES. 



161 



of my soul and the sanctification of the people who 
surround us, I may seek at least, by a fervent and peni- 
tential life, to deserve a death as precious as that o 
Father Braconaier. This favour is asked by one who is 
your's, &c. 



SKETCHES 

OF THE 

TOWN AND PRECINCTS OF ALEPPO. 



The city of Aleppo, in which I have had the honor 
of being a missionary during several years, is not like 
Damascus, rich in ancient and noble monuments ; but in 
extent, and in its commerce, and consequently, in its 
riches, it surpasses the latter city. It is these advantages 
which render it one of the most celebrated cities in the 
Turkish empire. It had many names in ancient times 
an account of the origin of which was given in one of the 
first letters of this collection. 

The town is of an oval figure, and is about three miles 
in circumference. The towers and walls by which it is 
surrounded, do not appear very capable of defending it. 
They reckon ten gates to the city, and many of its 
entrances are very fine. Deep in the earth, under one 
of these gates, there runs a spacious cavern, which is 
constantly illuminated in honour of the prophet Eliseus, 
who is said to have selected this grotto as a place of 
refuge for a considerable time. 

The houses of the town have nothing remarkable 



COMMERCE, 



163 



externally, but their interior is enriched by those who 
have sufficient wealth, with marble, and gilding", and 
painting. 

It is said that the very finest of the mosques was a 
church originally, the foundation of which is attributed 
to St. Helena. Thus in order to punish the enormities 
of bad Christians, Heaven permits whole nations to 
deviate from the beaten path, and lose the light of faith, 
and stumble blindfold into the pitfalls of schism and 
heresy, whose authors were as full of corruption as their 
fabrications. 

Though the Mahometan religion is at Aleppo the 
paramount one, Catholics are very numerous in Aleppo, 
notwithstanding. Father Nacchis 9 letter contains par- 
ticulars of the several exercises of our religion, which 
are practised in this city, and we see, thank Heaven, 
striking examples of the practice of the most excellent 
virtues of Christianism. 

The commerce carried on in all descriptions of mer- 
chandize conveyed to this place from Persia and India, 
renders Aleppo very populous ; but it is remarked, that 
this commerce, which was in former times so flourishing, 
has diminished considerably since the Cape of Good 
Hope was doubled, and merchants have reached India 
by sea. They willingly prefer this navigation to that 
which is made up the Euphrates and the Tigris, because 
the river navigation is interrupted by a multitude of 
mills which have been constructed on the Euphrates, 
and because the Tigris is navigable no farther than from 
Bagdad to Bassora. But if the city of Aleppo has lost 
some of its commerce by this alteration, if merchants 
have failed to throng her gates as numerously as hereto- 



164 



THE CARAVAN. 



fore, amends are made by the frequent and populous 
caravans which repair to Aleppo for the purpose of 
proceeding from one city to another. These caravans 
are composed of travellers from all nations, and consist 
for the most part of merchants, who themselves conduct 
their camels laden with their merchandize. When you per- 
ceive one of these caravans afar off for the first time, you 
imagine it an army drawn up in battle array. It has a 
chief who governs, conducts, and presides over it ; he 
regulates the hours for marching, for reposing, and for 
repasts ; he is arbitrator of all the differences which arise 
between traveller and traveller. These caravans have 
their advantages and disadvantages. It is in the first 
place, a great advantage to the traveller to be able to 
obtain every thing he wants, or may have need of in so 
long a journey without any difficulty whatsoever, or 
without quitting the caravan. Each caravan is attended 
by its sutlers, who carry all descriptions of provisions > 
and who night and day are always ready to make sale of 
them. But the paramount advantage to merchants who 
have much wealth, is the security they afford from the 
depredations of the Arabs, who are robbers by profession^ 
and whose only means of subsistence are the plundering 
of such caravans. The chief of the caravan, lest the 
Arabs should surprise them, causes his people to institute 
a vigilant guard, which never ceases night or day ; but, 
notwithstanding all their watchfulness, it happens but 
too frequently that these enemies of all travellers, in- 
formed as to the strength and destination of the caravan^ 
shrink into ambush, and when favoured by the night, 
by suddenly emerging upon the merchants, succeed in 
carrying off considerable booty. Having accomplished 



PROCESSION. 



165 



their object, they disappear across the wilderness, the 
desert-paths being only known to themselves. 

The most celebrated caravan of all is that which issues 
every year from the gates of Aleppo and Damascus, des- 
tined for Mahomet's tomb. Having been a missioner 
at either of these cities, I have been often present when 
this caravan was taking its departure. Perhaps, I shall 
give you some pleasure in describing what I saw. The 
caravan, of which I have spoken, commonly departs for 
Mecca in the month of July. Pilgrims are seen arriving 
about this time from Persia, Hindostan, and the other 
empires through which the disciples of Mahomet are dis- 
seminated. The pilgrims make a general procession 
some days before the departure of the caravan, which 
they call the procession of Mahomet, to obtain, as they 
tell us, a prosperous journey through the intercession of 
their prophet. The pilgrims who are most distinguished 
for birth and riches, endeavour, on the day of this pro- 
cession, to appear in the most magnificent apparel. The 
lordly pilgrim, mounted on a superb courser, richly ca- 
parisoned, is followed at a respectful distance by his 
slaves, who lead camels by the bridle, which are decora- 
ted with the most splendid ornaments. At the rising of 
the sun the procession commences, and the streets are 
already full with an infinite number of spectators. The 
pilgrims who are said to be descendants of the prophet 
open the march. They are clothed in long garments, 
with green turbans on their heads — a privilege which the 
pretended relations of Mahomet are alone permitted to 
to enjoy. They march, four and four a breast, and are 
followed by musicians, playing upon divers instruments ; 
after them, with stately step, in different ranks, the ca- 



166 



PROCESSION. 



camels, ornamented with their plumes of feathers, of dif- 
ferent colours, are seen advancing. There are two 
tymbaliers at their head. The music of the drums, or 
timbrels, and the flourishing of the trumpets, and of a 
great number of musical instruments, inspire these ani- 
mals with audacity and pride. Six and six the other 
pilgrims of the caravan are seen marching at a solemn 
pace, followed by litters filled with children, who are to 
be presented by their fathers and mothers to the prophet. 
These litters are surrounded with troops of choristers, 
who, while intoning their chaunts, assume a thousand 
extraordinary postures, in order to make persons imagine 
them inspired. They are followed by a train of 200 
cavaliers, apparelled in the skins of bears. These are 
succeeded by small pieces of artillery, mounted upon 
carriages, salvos of which are heard from time to time, 
while the air resounds at intervals with acclamations of 
jubilee from that universe of people. A company of cava- 
liers, apparelled in the skins of tigers, which are disposed 
in the form of a cuirass, succeed their long mustachios, 
Tartar caps, together with enormous sabres pendant at 
their sides, render their appearance imposing and belli- 
gerent. Four hundred infantry in green, and wearing 
a species of yellow mitre on their heads, precede the 
Mufti, accompanied by the doctors of the law, and an 
immense troop of choristers. The Mufti appears in ad- 
vance of the standard of Mahomet, which follows him 
immediately. This standard is made of green satin, 
embroidered with gold. His guard consists of twelve 
cavaliers, in coats of mail, bearing silver maces in their 
hands, accompanied by trumpeters, and a troop of per- 
sons who aU strike simultaneously, and in cadence, upon 



PROCESSION, 



167 



plates of silver. The pavilion destined to be presented 
at Mahomet's tomb, afterwards appears carried by three 
camels, covered with green plumes, and glittering with 
silver. The pavilion is of crimson velvet, enriched with 
gold embroidery, and blazing with precious stones of 
every colour. The dancers, who are hired for the purpose, 
dance exultingly, and counterfeit inspired and extraor- 
dinary men. The Bashaw of Jerusalem finally appears 
preceded by drums and trumpets, and other Turkish in- 
struments of music, and concludes the long line of the 
procession. The procession ended, each pilgrim is oc- 
cupied only with preparations for his departure. The 
town of Mecca is the period of the pilgrimage. This 
town is situate in Arabia the Happy, at four miles' dis- 
tance from the Red Sea. It is the opinion of the Turks, 
that their prophet was born in this city, and this opinion 
it is which gives them so great a veneration for it. They 
give it no other name when speaking of it but that of the 
Magnificent : when they say their prayers, which is seve- 
ral times a day, they never fail to turn their faces towards 
this city, let them be in what country they may. Their 
mosque is in the middle of Mecca : it is situate, they 
pretend, upon the very site on which Abraham con- 
structed his first residence. The square house, so reve- 
renced by the Turks, is in the centre of this mosque ; 
for tradition has informed them, that Abraham's dwelling 
was quadrangular. The mosque is very handsome and 
extensive, and as fine as gilding and painting can make 
it, and all the votive gifts which the disciples of Maho- 
homet send thither by way of reverence. The city of 
Mecca and its mosque are announced at a very great dis- 
tance to the pilgrims, by the stupendous elevation of its 



168 



THE KA ABA* 



minarets. Near the Kaaba, or tlie square house, there is 
a species of chapel, in which there is a well of much 
celebrity amongst the Turks ; they call it Zem-zem, 
This water issues from a source, their historians tell us, 
which was discovered, in former times, by God to Agar 
and to Ishmael, when, driven from his residence by Abra- 
ham, they were constrained to take refuge in Arabia. 
Mahomet took advantage of this well to recommend his 
native city to the whole circle of his followers ; for he 
proclaimed that the water had the virtue of not only 
curing all sorts of corporeal maladies, but of even pu- 
rifying souls sullied with the greatest crimes ; and so 
well is this chimerical opinion established amongst the 
Mussulmans, that troops of way-worn pilgrims are seen 
constantly arriving and hastening to this well to drink 
this water, and to bathe in it. Traders in every des- 
cription of jewellery, and merchants selling gems, of 
every hue, spread out their brilliant merchandize, as 
well as certain aromatic powders, beside this venerated 
water — their sale is very extensive. These merchants are 
under many obligations to the chimerical virtue of this 
water, which continually attracts, in equal numbers, 
criminals of every description, and patients afflicted with 
every species of sickness. Though the country by 
which Mecca is surrounded is extremely arid, it does 
not fail to produce great quantities of fruit, of the finest 
quality. The Turks attribute this fertility to the pro- 
mise made by God to Agar and her son, to give them all 
that should be necessary for their subsistence in the 
country whither the angel was to conduct them. The 
city of Medina is not less venerated by the Mussulmans ; 
the reason is recounted by the historians of Arabia, 



THE PROPHET'S ADVENTURES. 



169 



jealous of Mahomet becoming a legislator, being followed 
by multitudes who listened to his opinions as to the words 
of an oraele. The inhabitants of Mecca formed a con- 
spiracy to expel him from their city, but having been 
informed of their design by his disciples, he secretly 
fled with two of his adherents, and concealed himself in 
a cavern, which he found upon the mountain named 
Tour, which is not at more than the distance of a league 
from Mecca. The same historians inform us, that not 
thinking himself sufficiently safe in this asylum, he aban- 
doned it, and took refuge at Medina, with t wo persons, 
who shared his fortunes, and whose fears were as great 
as those of their master. Mahomet was, at this time, 
as the historians tell us, five -and- forty years of age. He 
had spent fourteen of these in preaching his new doc- 
trine. His flight from Mecca, and retreat to Medina, 
have given a commencement to the first Hegira of the 
Mussulmans. Finding himself tranquil in this city, the 
novel legislator began to dogmatize anew. His reputa- 
tion, as a man divinely inspired and favoured with the 
gift of prophecy, the morals of his new law, so con- 
formable to the passions of human nature, in a little time 
attracted a multitude of followers about him, not onlv 
from the neighbouring districts, but from countries more 
remote. He converted these numerous disciples into 
subjects, who obeyed him as their sovereign. Ultimately, 
he found himself at the head of such a multitude, that he 
conceived himself capable of any enterprise. The re- 
sentment which he cherished against his fellow-citizens 
in Mecca, who had endeavoured to expel him from the 
place of his birth, led him to seek for vengeance ; in the 
first place he conceived that he should inflict it in a man* 

i 

! 



170 



THE PROPHET'S VENGEANCE. 



ner which should hurt them to the quick, by declaring 
that Medina should henceforth be his city, and the seat 
of the empire of himself and his successors. He ordained 
that his sepulchre should be constructed in Medina, and 
accordingly, at the present day, his coffin is to be seen 
in the great mosque named Kaaba. As Christians are 
never permitted to enter this mosque, it is only from 
hearsay that we know that his coffin is enclosed in a 
structure in a corner of the great mosque ; that it is de- 
posited upon columns of marble ; that it is covered with 
a tent, composed of cloth of gold ; that it is surrounded 
with a multitude of lamps which never cease to burn, 
and that the walls of this tower are sheathed with plates 
of gilded silver. To this tomb it is that the caravans 
repair to offer up their homage. The caravan which 
carries the presents of the Grand Signior is no sooner 
arrived, than the Dervises, whose business it is to take 
care of the mosque, present themselves to receive this 
caravan. The pilgrims make the mosque re-echo with 
their cries of jubilee, and with the intonation of their 
canticles in honour of the prophet. An uninterrupted 
series of festivals and rejoicing succeed, until the depar- 
ture of the caravan — a day on which the pilgrims assem- 
ble, and, while departing from the town, they chant 
verses from the Alcoran aloud. The relatives and friends 
of the pilgrims, aware of the movement of the caravan, 
present themselves before the travellers to offer them 
refreshments. 

Along the route, all the people, amongst whom they 
pass, consider themselves honoured in carrying them 
collations. It is, above all, when the caravan returns 
that the pilgrims are overwhelmed with congratulations — 



PILGRIMS. 



171 



the town from which they originally set out for Mecca 
becomes mad with mirth. Wherever they appear, every 
one delights to do them honor. They enjoy those privi- 
leges from that day forward, which are conceded by the 
religion of the Turks to all such personages as visit the 
sepulchre of their prophet ; and of all these privileges the 
most indispensable to many of those pilgrims is that 
perfect exemption from the penalties attached to crimes 
for which Ottoman justice would condemn these devotees 
only for their character of Hadjees.* Covering a mul- 
titude of sins, as it does, the pilgrimage to Mecca 
sequesters them from all pursuit, and transforms crimi- 
nals of the deepest dye into men of unimpeached and 
spotless integrity. This is by no means the least effec- 
tive of those secrets which Mahomet adopted to bring his 
mausoleum into estimation, and to extend the privileges 
of his sect. 

But the reader will be egregiously mistaken if he 
imagines that it is merely to the pilgrims to Mecca that 
important privileges are conceded. The camel that 
enjoyed the honour of bearing on his back the presents 
from the Grand Si gnior, possesses privileges of his own. 
His prerogative consists in being regarded no longer as 
a common animal ; — the brute is considered as possessing 
the felicity of being consecrated to Mahomet — a title 
which exempts him for the residue of his years from 
public labours and the services of mankind ; a cottage is 
erected for his abode — he resides there in tranquillity 
and repose ; he combines dignity and ease, being well fed 
and carefully attended to. The pilgrimage to Mecca 

* Pilgrims. 



172 



THE USBECKS. 



gave occasion to our seeing the king of the Usbecks, 
several years ago, when passing through Aleppo, and 
repairing to the sepulchre, the king was proceeding to 
finish his days beside the prophet's tomb. 

It had been the hard destiny of this prince to see his 
subjects rise against him in rebellion, with his son at their 
head, who laboured to dethrone his father and obtain 
possession of his kingdom — -a son who was so atrocious 
as to cause the eyes of his parent to be plucked out, 
that he might resign all hopes of ever re-ascending the 
throne. We saw this unfortunate prince pass by us, 
mounted upon horseback, with a bandage on his eyes ; 
fifty guards-men, armed with quivers and arrows, escorted 
him. Every eye glistened with tears while contemplating 
this melancholy spectacle. Word w r as brought us, since 
that memorable day, that heaven had fully avenged this 
unhappy father, and punished his cruel son. The son 
died a miserable death, and his subjects returned to their 
legitimate king : they re-established him upon his throne 
and obeyed him with more submission than ever. 

The Usbecks are Tartars who live in the neighbourhood 
of Persia : they are governed by four distinct sovereigns, 
who are independent of each other. The most powerful 
of these is the king of Balek. The second is the sove- 
reign of Koweresmy, otherwise Urghinz. The third is 
the monarch of Chakar. The fourth is the king of 
Kytar. 

The costume of the Usbecks is the same as that of 
the Moguls. They make use of shafts and javelins. 
They launch the latter with astonishing address. Their 
disposition is naturally humane and benevolent. They 
have a love for strangers ; and whatever be the religion 



SECTARIES. 



173 



they profess, they treat foreigners invariably with kind- 
ness. Their country is good, like the disposition of its 
inhabitants, and abounds in every thing necessary for 
the sustenance and accommodation of its people. They 
trade with the Persians and the circumjacent Tartars, 
and with even the Chinese, though the country of the 
latter is so remote. In their country, emeralds, rubies, 
as well as other precious stones, wool, cotton, silk and 
linen, and very fine webs, are to be found. They even 
speak of rivers that run on golden sands. 

As to what concerns their religion, it does not seem 
at all incredible that their ancestors professed the Roman 
Catholic religion. Their natural disposition is serene. 
Their qualities are such as dispose men to the practice of 
the Christian virtues j* but through the commerce which 
they continually carry on with the Mahometans, they 
became susceptible of the manners of the latter, and 
have received their law. A sensible demonstration that 
much may be lost in the society of heretics and liber- 
tines. 

We have frequent reason to reflect upon a circum- 
stance, which in this country is very advantageous to 
the Catholic religion, this is, that the Mahometan super- 
stition, which is paramount throughout its extent, is 
divided and torn asunder by different sects, which loathe 
and abhor one another mutually. 

The cause of which may be found in the nature of 
the human mind ; for when the latter has nothing more 
than reason to determine and give it stability in what 
appertains to religion above all, it enterprises a faith after 

* For the religion of these people, see " O'Brien's Round Towers." 

T. A. P. 



174 



THEOPOLIS. 



a fashion of its own ; that is, one which is necessarily 
conformed to the false intelligences of the mind, or more 
frequently still, to the corruption of the heart, but which 
is in all cases tinctured more or less by the medium 
through which it has passed, and the mind assumes the 
religion which sits most easily upon it, as naturally as 
bodily deformity adopts a capacious robe. 

This is a reflection which we cause our christians to 
make, in order to sustain them in the Catholic religion, 
insinuating at the same their invaluable advantages in 
having in the decisions of the Church an infallible rule, 
which prescribes on all occasions and in all the disputes 
which happen to arise amongst us, what should be 
believed and practised in order to conduct us in the way 
of salvation. Admirable effect of celestial wisdom ! 
which has given alike to the humble and the great, to 
the ignorant as well as to the learned, the certain and 
unfailing means of knowing what they are to follow and 
embrace ; " there is a way in which fools may walk with 
safety." 

After this digression, which the caravans which leave 
Aleppo have given rise to, I shall return, if you please, 
my Rev. Father, to the account which you require of us 
of whatever may be deserving of attention in this 
country. 

When directing his steps to Tripoly, the traveller 
encounters, at two days' journey from Aleppo, the cele- 
brated city of Antioch, which was entitled by the Emperor 
Justinian, Theopolis, or Town of God. Which deserved 
this glorious name, as St. Peter the prince of the 
apostles held his See therein, and formed the first 
believers of this city into true disciples of Jesus Christ, 



ASSASSINS. 



175 



who profited so happily by the lessons of their master, 
that they richly merited to be the first who wore the 
august name of Christians. The apostles held a council 
in this city, the canons of which St. Pamphylius the 
Martyr saw in the library of Origen. 

The eloquent preaching of John Chrysostom to the 
people of this city, will ever do honour to the memory 
of Antioch, which has been so happy as to possess this 
ancient Father, and to receive from his eloquent lips his 
sublime and salutary instructions. 

When remembering the ancient spiritual splendour of 
this city, we cannot fail to mourn its unhappiness in 
having fallen into the bondage of the infidels. Of those 
grand and superb edifices, nothing remains but the 
mouldering ruins ; but Divine Providence has interposed 
to preserve the sanctuary of the church of St. Peter, in 
remembrance of the honour it enjoyed in having formerly 
possessed St. Peter's chair. 

This city deserved to be preserved for its happy 
situation. It stands in the middle of a mighty plain 
watered by streams that give it fertility in every season. 
Orontes, a river which contributed to enrich it, still 
bathes its dilapidated walls. From the ruined ramparts 
two mountains may be seen, and a paradise is offered to 
the view in the valley which they form. 

Between Antioch, of which we have just spoken, and 
the town of Tripoly, and to the east of Tortosa, (a town 
which was called Antaradus by the ancients,) a plain is 
to be seen twelve miles in length and six in latitude, 
where it ultimately rises into elevations. These mountains 
were formerly inhabited by people who called themselves 
Arsacides, pretending to be descendants of that famous 



176 



OLD MAN. 



Arsaces, who, after the death of Alexander, founded the 
empire of the Parthians. 

These people, who emerged from the confines of 
Persia, near Babylon, in the seventh century, formed a 
little kingdom in a corner of Phenicia. They erected ten 
strongholds upon inaccessible rocks, from which they rende- 
red themselves formidable to all the vicinity. Their depreda- 
tions and assassinations obtained for them the odious title 
of assassins ; a detestable title expressive of their cruelty. 

The assassins elected a chief amongst themselves, who 
called himself the Old Man of the Mountain, a cele- 
brated name in contemporary history. He bore this name, 
because, as it was said, their choice always fell upon the 
oldest man of the nation, or because he inhabited a 
castle named Almut, or Alamut, situated on a lofty 
mountain, where to attack him was almost impossible. 
In mentioning this, our old historians shew very little 
knowledge of Arabic. The signification of Scheik is 
old or senior, but it likewise signifies Lord. It is not 
true that the assassins selected the oldest person in the 
nation for their prince, and we should translate in reality, 
the Lord of the Mountain. His empire over his subjects 
was so absolute, that if he required the commission of 
the most monstrous enormities, they were always ready 
to execute them at the first command that he gave them 
to that effect, and even at the peril of their own existence. 
They are accused of the assassination of Louis of Bavaria 
in 1231, and of making an attempt on the life of 
St. Louis. The Sieur de Joinville makes no mention of 

* Their name is likewise said to be derived from that of their 
founder, Hassan Sabah. 



BAB POLICY. 



177 



this ; on the contrary, he asserts that their prince sent 
presents in 1252 to that sainted monarch. 

They profess the Mahometan religion ; but so frail 
was their tenure of attachment to this faith, that they 
negociated with the templars to embrace Christianity, if 
the tribute which they were compelled to pay the Chris- 
tians were rescinded. This condition was rejected by 
the templars, and this refusal, says William of Tyre, 
caused the Christians to lose the realm of Jerusalem. — 
That a nation so monstrous should be able to maintain its 
existence for four hundred years, appears perfectly as- 
tonishing. It was only in 1257 that the Tartars, under 
their king, Allen, or Haloen, in order to deliver the 
country from such dangerous neighbours, undertook to 
massacre the chief, and extirpate his people, an enter- 
prise in which they succeeded. We know no people at 
the present day in this country, who bear the name of 
assassins. But it is not impossible but the Kesbins, a na- 
tion which inhabit the mountains which are at two days' 
journey from Tripoli, and the Nassarians, another na- 
tion established in the plain towards the sea, it is not im- 
possible, I repeat, but these may be the successors of the 
assassins. These nations inhabit the same country as 
they did, and besides there is an intimate connexion be- 
tween the religion which was professed by the Assassins, 
and that which the Kesbins and Nassarians observe ; 
these two nations, Kesbins and Nassarians as they are, 
may be considered as forming a single people. Those 
who inhabit the mountains are denominated Kesbins, as 
the name of their country is Kesbia, those who inhabit 
the plain are called Nassarians, an expression equivalent 
to that of bad Christians, an appellation which might be 

i 5 



178 



METEMPSYCOSES. 



applied to the former equally well, for their religion is a 
monstrous composition of Mahometanism and Christia- 
nity, a circumstance which gives them an extravagant 
idea of our holy mysteries. The doctors of their sect 
are entitled Scheiks. These doctors support them in 
their fond imaginations. They teach, for instance, that 
God has appeared, not only in the person of Jesus 
Christ, but in that of Abraham, in Moses, and in many 
celebrated persons of the ancient Testament. They 
even do Mahomet the honor of conceding him a similar 
prerogative, a belief so absurd, that the Turks have not 
fallen into it. This is not all ; they consider themselves 
as doing honor to Jesus Christ in declaring that he did 
not die upon the cross — they imagine that he substituted 
another person who suffered in his place ; thus they say 
that by the ordination of Mahomet, another body, dif- 
ferent from his own, was deposited in the sepulchre 
which had been prepared for that celebrated impostor* 

They admit the metempsycoses moreover, and ima- 
gine that the same soul passes from one body to another, 
never ending its transmigrations till it has passed through 
seventy, but with this difference, that the soul of a good 
man enters a body more perfect than his own, whilst that 
of a sinful person enters the body of some impure 
creature. 

They have borrowed communion from the Christians, 
but the manner in which they practice it is perfectly 
fanatical, for the elements are wine and a morsel of meat. 
Women and infants are excluded, and they admit only 
men to this communion. The practice is observed in se- 
cret assemblies by the men amongst themselves. They 
observe some of our festivals, that of Christmas, that of 



DIFFICULT CONVERSION. 



179 



the Circumcision of our Lord, the Epiphany, the Sab- 
bath of Palms, as well as that of Easter, together with 
some festivals of the apostles and the saints. When 
they pray, they turn towards the sun, which makes some 
assert that that planet is worshipped by this people, but 
they do not admit that such is the fact. I omit many of 
their customs, as in many instances their customs are 
only extravagances. They are, notwithstanding, much 
attached to them, persuaded, as they seem to be, that 
their religion is not inferior to that of the Maronites, as 
some of the practices of that faith are observed by them. 

Many of our missionaries have sought to gain some of 
them to Christianity, but as they listen with attention 
only to their own false teachers, and are reluctant to fol- 
low any sentiments but those in which they have been 
educated ; despairing of their conversion, our missioners 
have often been obliged to shake the dust from their 
shoes. We learn an invariable lesson from the expe- 
rience of all ages. As soon as the rule of the Catholic 
faith which our Saviour gave to conduct us without fail- 
ing in the solitary way of safety is forsaken, the errors 
into which men fall are only to be equalled by the va- 
riety of character exhibited by the human mind. This 
is what St. Paul wished to impress upon the Romans, 
when he said that those men who deemed themselves 
wise and high, above the common herd, went astray in 
their vain reasonings, and that their insensate spirit, 
through the judgment of the deity, had been overwhelm- 
ed with frightful blindness, a misfortune which falls not 
upon those vigorous intellects alone who refuse any 
arbitrator in modes of faith except reason — it is a mis- 
fortune inherited even by the ignorant, when in lieu of 



180 



ISHMAELTTES. 



obeying the enunciations of religion they suffer them- 
selves to be inveigled and carried off captives to those 
false ones whom the church denounces and repudiates. 
This has been the fate of the nations whom we have 
been describing, as well as of others in our own more 
immediate vicinity. The Ishmaelites too, who occupy 
a little territory called Cadmus, are of this number. — 
Their life is so brutal and shameful, that they do not de- 
serve to be spoken of, unless to humiliate mankind, by 
shewing us that there is no degree of baseness, no ex- 
travagance or disorder to which we may not descend, 
when our passions are our only guides. We have 
another nation in our mountains, whose origin and re- 
ligion are equally mysterious. These people are called 
Druses ; they inhabit a portion of mount Libanus, as well 
as the mountains beyond Sayd and Balbec, and the 
country of Giblos, or Gibail, and of Tripoli. The Dru- 
ses extend as far as Egypt. As to their origin, if they 
themselves be consulted, they will tell you that their an- 
cestors were some of those followers of Godfrey of 
Bouillon, who came with him in 1099 from Europe to 
Jerusalem, and that after the loss of the latter city 
they took refuge in the mountains from the fury 
of the Turks ; for they were persecuted and pursued, 
wherever they appeared by the latter people, who 
sought to accomplish the destruction and massacre of 
the remains of Christianity, the very name of which was 
odious to them. Some writers bestow on them a dif- 
ferent origin, pretending that a Count of Dreux having 
been discomfited by Saladin in the time of the Cru- 
sades, the soldiers of the Count retired and intrenched 
themselves in the mountains, and that having subse- 



THE CRANIUM. 



181 



quently multiplied, they established habitations and took 
the name of Druses from the Count of Dreux, who had 
been their leader. But as it is certain that this nation 
bore their present name in the country which is now in- 
habited by them, anterior to the Crusades, their origin is 
indisputably much more ancient than that which is given 
them by their own accounts, or which European writers 
attribute to them. If we may judge by their books, 
their name of Druses has its derivation from the Arabic 
word, deuz, which signifies that line where the two parts 
of the skull which constitute the perfect human head are 
united, for it is very certain that the authors of their 
books frequently compare the perfect union of the two 
portions of the human skull with that political union 
which should constantly pervade the nation. For by this 
comparison the authors of their books give their readers 
to understand, that as the preservation of the human 
being depends upon the intimate union of the two parts of 
which the skull is composed, so the perpetuity of the 
nation of the Druses will always depend upon the una- 
nimity of all its members, in maintaining and defend- 
ing themselves against their enemies, as well as by their 
uniformity in constantly observing the customs, practices, 
and ceremon es handed down to them by their progeni- 
tors. This comparison, repeated so frequently in their 
books, being admitted, we may easily suppose that from this 
word deuz, which signifies, as we have said, the line that 
lies between the two portions of the skull, the suture of 
the cranium, this nation was at first called by the 
Arabic word, durzi, or in the plural durouz, that is to 
say, in English, the nation who preserve their unity and 
uniformity, and it is from these Arabic appellatives that 



THE FEMALES. 



that of Druses is derived, corruptive! y, a name which has 
remained constantly affixed to this nation. The Druses 
of the present day recognise, as their legislator, a Sultan 
of Egypt, of the dynasty of the Fatimites, whose name 
is Maoulana el Hakem Biemrilla, that is to say, our Lord 
el Hakem Biemrillah. His reign began in the year of 
Jesus Christ, 996, which is 386 of the Hegira. He was 
honored by his disciples as their king, and they never 
appeared in his presence unless physically prostrated. 
The religion of the Druses is a monstrous composition 
of maxims and practices, which they have retained from 
the Christianity which they anciently professed, mingled 
with Mahomedan customs and ceremonies which they 
have subsequently adopted on account of the continual 
commerce which they carry on with the Turks, or from 
the political motive of conciliating their protection, and 
exciting their benevolence. They keep, with the utmost 
care, the volume, scroll, or book, which their legislator 
left them. This book contains three sections which are 
in the form of letters ; they contain, the Druses say, all 
the mystery of their religion. Besides the first legisla- 
tor, they recognise another, who had been his disciple. 
They call him Hamze, a holy man in their opinion. 
Three books of their law were composed for them by 
Hamze, and this law prohibits all communication of 
these books to strangers : I do not know whether it be 
upon this account or not, that they bury it under ground. 
They bring them forth every Friday, the day on which 
they hold their meetings, to read them to the public. 
Amongst the Druses, the females have the reputation of 
being best acquainted with their religion, which confers 
much distinction on the women of these people. Those 



THE DRUSES. 



183 



by whom the female portion of the community are in- 
structed, and by whom the contents of the books of their 
two legislators are explained to the women, are likewise 
of the feminine gender. Above all things, secrecy is re- 
commended to them, and it is observed by these women 
so strictly, that all we have been hitherto able to learn 
is simply? that these books contain extravagant narra- 
tives, with which the minds of Druses are imbued. 
We know, moreover, that there are two kinds of Dru- 
ses, the one is called in Arabic, Ukkal, or the spiritual, 
the other is entitled Dgiuhhal, or the ignorant. The 
spiritual may be easily distinguished by their garments, 
which are invariably sad coloured, besides which they 
never wear a weapon in their girdle, carrying neither a 
dagger nor any other arms, as they pretend to derive all 
their distinction from the comparative reformation of 
their manners. They are seldom seen in public ; they 
seclude themselves in caves as if they were monastic 
cells, in order to remove from the pleasures of the world. 
They live on little, and as they have the utmost horror 
of their neighbour's property, they refuse whatever 
may be offered them, from the apprehension that the 
presents which you make them may not have been legi- 
timately come by. They receive gifts with less readi- 
ness from the rich than from the peasants, persuaded as 
they are, that the latter have procured them with more 
honesty, and only give what they earn by the sweat 
of their brow. These spirituals conform to the Koran 
and submit to circumcision ; they observe the fast of 
the Ramadan, and the abstinence from pork, as well as 
many other superstitions of the Turks. As to what 
concerns those who are designated Dgiuhhal by the 



184 



THE IDOL. 



Druses, "the ignorant," they are never to be seen in the 
assembly with the spiritual. They absolutely ignore the 
heart of their mysteries ; we may venture to assert, that 
that they live without religion, and therefore in a state 
of libertinism, which they conceive to be allowable with 
them. They suppose that all their duties have beers 
satisfied when they have repeated a few prayers in honor 
of their founder Hakem Biemrillah, and when they have 
employed cea'tain terms in their prayers which the spiritual 
make use of in their orisons. These terms are in Arabic, 
ma fil illah alia hue, that is to say, there is no other deity 
save God. This prayer is their profession of faith ; 
they repeat it often enough, above all when repairing to 
the statue of Hakim to do homage. Two of the villages 
alone enjoy the honour of speaking the language of the 
Druses, and of possessing the statue of their legislator. 
His statue, according to their law, should either be of 
gold or silver. They enclose it in a wooden coffer, and 
never reveal it to the light except in their great ceremo- 
monies. When they address their vows to their founder, 
to obtain what they stand in need of, they seem to ima- 
gine themselves speaking to the deity himself, their ve- 
neration for this idol is so unlimited. The two villages, 
which alone have the privilege of preserving it, are 
called Bagelin and Fredis : they are situated in the 
mountains, where the chiefs of the Druses reside. We 
have related now all that we have been able to learn con- 
cerning the religion of the Druses. We go often on a 
mission to the Catholic inhabitants of their country, but 
we always have the grief of seeing that this nation is 
very far from the kingdom of God. True it is that they 
love the Christians, and love not the Turks. It is also 



DRUSES. 



185 



true, that tliey prefer to call themselves Christians ra- 
ther than Turks, though they wear the turban and the 
emerald cestus, and they reeeive us with willingness and 
joy ; but notwithstanding this favourable disposition, their 
inviolable attachment for their ancient faith, which is 
only an incongruous collection of mingled practices and 
ceremonies of Christianism and of Mahometanism, their 
obstinate unwillingness to listen to instruction, give us 
just grounds of apprehension, lest this nation continue to 
shut its eyes with even still more obstinacy to the light 
of the gospel, which the sun of justice never ceases to 
shed radiantly around them. It is this reflection which 
urges us to conjure such persons as heaven may inspire 
with zeal for the salvation of mens' souls, to unite with 
us in reiterating demands for the conversion of this na- 
tion, and of many other realms which have participated 
equally in the blood of Jesus Christ, but w T hich are ba- 
nished by the monsters of heresy and schism from the 
bosom of the church, and sent far astray from all the 
paths of peace, from all the ways of salvation — My 
Rev. Father, we shall add nothing more to what we 
have related concerning the condition of the two first 
towns of Syria, Damascus and Aleppo, and their en- 
virons. All that appeared to us to be little known in 
France, and to merit, notwithstanding to be better known, 
has been embraced by this recital. In future, we shall 
endeavour to observe with more exactitude than hitherto, 
and to set down, likewise, to as great an extent as our 
employments will permit us, whatsoever may be worthy 
of enquiry, which we shall send you without fail : upon 
your part, procure us, if you please, the succour of the 
prayers of all such persons as may wish to contribute to 



186 



DRUSES. 



the augmentation of the kingdom of Christ Jesus. Send 
us a reinforcement of good labourers ; they are demanded 
by the nations of Syria and Persia. We have reliance 
in the Monarch of mercies, and the Master of all wealth 
—we trust that France will provide for our subsistence. 



TO FATHER FLEURIAU. 



My Reverend Father, 

No one is so well aware as you that the the missions 
of our society in Syria have always been invested with 
the strongest attractions for your servant. I experienced 
these attractions so early as my noviceship, on reading 
those relations that informed us of the labours of our 
missionaries in those extensive provinces of the realm of 
infidelity. 

The fruits produced by their apostleship, the consola- 
tion afforded them by treading in the traces of Christ 
Jesus, filled me with ardent aspirations for following 
in their foot-prints, for treading above all, within that 
sacred territory, the first missioners of which were Christ 
and the apostles. God has granted me the grace of pre- 
serving this vocation as well during the years of my 
regency as during my studies in theology. In the third 
year of my probation, this predilection became more 
imperative. I addressed myself, at that time, to the Rev. 
Father General : I requested his permission to consecrate 
my life to the salvation of the nations inhabiting the 
holy land and the circumjacent provinces, so often irri- 
gated with the sweat of Christ Jesus. I have not for- 



188 



THE ROYAL SAINT. 



gotten your good offices, my Father, to procure me the 
permission I sighed for with such earnestness : no day 
passes by me that, when ministering at the altar, I fail 
to remember my revered benefactor. A favour, in 
addition, which was very dear to me when I was coming 
to this country, and which, by means of your mediation, 
has been vouchsafed me, augments the obligations under 
which you have placed me. My vocation for the Syrian 
mission gave birth, in my bosom, to the same desire 
which, subsequently to his conversion, St Ignatius con- 
ceived. I relinquished France with joyful feelings, and 
traversed the Mediterranean in the hope of being able 
speedily to offer up my vows in the temple of Jerusalem, 
and at the hallowed foot of the sepulchre of our Saviour. 
My desires, my Rev. Father, have been listened to : I 
have visited, my Father, yes, I have visited that holy 
city in which the sublime mystery of our redemption was 
accomplished, and where, at every foot-fall, you disco- 
ver objects which are all so many touching testimonies 
of the illimitable love of God for the salvation of man- 
kind. Happy should 1 be if so many holy monuments, 
which one by one I have so long stood over and contem- 
plated, and of which the recollection so frequently recurs 
to me ; happy should I be if they preserved in my inmost 
heart the sentiments of piety and religion, which those 
memorials are so well calculated to inspire. Sir, in 
pursuance of my promise, I present to you the relation 
of my voyages. Receive it, I beseech you, as a memento 
of my gratitude. But I must apprize you, previously 
to entering on my narrative, that its only dignity must 
be derived from the lofty and sacred character of the 
places I shall describe to you. It was from the port of 



THE VOYAGE. 



189 



Sayd, a maritime city of Phenieia, that we embarked 
for Palestine. In the ancient times, this city was called 
Sidon. You are well aware that we had a mission there 
at one time. We did not succeed in quitting the har- 
bour of this city till we made many fruitless efforts for 
that purpose : contrary winds compelled us to re-enter 
as often as we emerged. Heaven, on this occasion, 
wished to teach me to repress, restrain, and subjugate 
my impatience to reach Jerusalem, to assist at the cele- 
bration of our august mysteries, solemnized during the 
period of Holy Week. Finally, on the 7th of April, 
which was the Monday of Passion week, our vessel took 
the wind in a favourable moment, crowded as it was with 
pilgrims, who were desirous to pluck the palms of Pales- 
tine and the olives of Gethsemani. The delay which 
we had experienced in the first efforts at departure, served 
only to aggravate the joy which I subsequently proved 
at seeing our vessel plough the sea for the harbour of my 
desires. Having issued from the port of Sidon, we 
coasted near that city, then skirted Sarepta, and, subse- 
sequently, we passed with a flowing sheet by Tyre, and 
likewise by Cape Blanc. Sarepta, which was a great 
city and a sea-port before now, is at present but an ara- 
ble and open field, bisected by the road that leads you 
to Tyre. The relics of a ruined pavement and some 
dilapidated houses, whose destruction has not hitherto 
been perfectly accomplished by Time, announce a city 
which, at one time, was considerable, but which is now 
no more. This city is said to have carried on a great 
commerce in brass and iron in anterior times, in which 
the name which it bears of Sarepta has originated ; for 



190 



THE PROPHET. 



the name of Sarepta is derivative from the junction of 
two words, the one signifying iron, and the other mean- 
ing brass. They find neither of these metals in this place 
at the present day. In the third Book of Kings this city 
is denominated Sarepta of the Sidonians, because this 
city was a Satellite of Sidon. A mosque, of small di- 
mensions, at some paces from Sarepta, ascends above 
the margin of the sea. The Turks, and, indeed, the 
Christians of the country, pretend that it stands upon 
the spot where the prophet Eiias operated the two signal 
miracles, which the third Book of Kings has transmitted 
to us.* 

The first was the multiplication of a handful of flour 
and of some drops of oil ; God granted this increase at 
the petition of the prophet to recompense the fidelity 
and the charity of that widow, who in the time of 
universal famine, having nothing in the world for her own 
subsistence and her son's, save this drop of oil and this 
small quantity of flour, offered both the one and the other 
with a profuse open heart, which would have given 
kingdoms if she had them, to the prophet in his necessity. 
The second miracle was the resurrection of this widow's 
son. The prophet, coming to lodge in the mansion of 
the widow, found her offspring lying dead and the 
destitute mother quite desolate. Elias, touched with 
feelings of compassion, took the infant from the mother's 
hands and bore him to his chamber, then addressing the 
God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, restored the son, 
redolent of vitality, to his parent. We are informed by 
Saint Jerome, in his epitaph on Paula, that this virtuous 



Chap. xvii. 



CAVES. 



191 



lady, when visiting the sepulchre, was conducted to the 
little dwelling of this holy widow hard by the harbour of 
Sarepta ; 'twas the holy abode which served Elias as an 
hospital. 

According to a tradition of the Hebrews, this resus- 
citated infant was the prophet Jonas. Supposing this to 
be the case then, when he preached penitence to Nineveh, 
the age of the prophet was, to say the least of it, ex- 
ceedingly mature. 

At three quarters of a league from Sarepta, a long 
chain of rocks is seen, extending for a considerable way, 
in which excavations have been made in the form of 
crosses, which are five or six feet in depth, and the 
entrance to which is little more than two feet square. It 
is difficult to decide for what purpose they were made : 
according to the natives of the country, they were hollowed 
out by hermits, who, retiring to these places, took up their 
residence in graves, the better to meditate on death. I 
prefer the opinion of such persons as imagine that these 
excavations were sepulchres destined to inhume the in- 
habitants of Sarepta, who were eminent for their riches. 
Be they sepulchres or cells, their appellation is adnoun. 

Nothing is to be seen that much merits our attention 
from the site of these caves to the river Eleutherus. 
They say this river derives its source from the summits 
of Mount Libanus. Traversing Gallilee and Itursea to 
enter the Phoenician sea, it separates the territory of 
Sidon from the country of Tyre, which procures it the 
name of Kasemeeh or Cassimer, by which it is known 
at the present day, signifying separation ; the windings 
of this river, which run at the foot of the mountains, 
impart no small celerity to its current. The turtle 



192 



ANCIENT SPLENDOUR. 



fishery, which is exceedingly abundant in certain seasons 
of the year, gives to it very great importance in this 
country ; but that which confers upon this river most 
celebrity of all is, the honourable mention which the book 
of Machabees makes of it, where Judas Machabeus's 
illustrious brother, the high priest Jonathan, is said to 
accompany king Ptolemy so far as the margin of the 
Eleutherus ; and we learn from the same book, that it 
was to the margin of this river likewise, that this great 
captain pursued the generals of Demetrius, who, in their 
hasty flight, found the means of reaching the river and 
likewise of traversing it. 

At three leagues distance from this river Eleutherus, 
and nine or ten from Sayd, and upon the same sea shore 
with Sidon, we paused before the town of Tyre, a city 
which was anteriorly so superb, that, as Ezechiel says, 
her citizens conceived themselves as having come into 
the world to administer the law to all the human species : 
so opulent, that in that resplendent city silver and gold 
were as obvious as dust beneath the footsteps of the 
citizens, and so magnificent moreover in her edifices, 
that within her capacious walls all the mansions were so 
many palaces. So redoubtable through the nations of 
the universe by her resplendent guard, composed and 
constituted of the most valiant soldiers of Persia, of 
Lydia, and of the black-skinned sons of Lybia, that 
it was considered among strangers as invincible. At the 
present day I did not expect to find Tyre as magnificent 
as the prophet represents it ; but I anticipated to 
discover remaining there at least some brilliant relics of 
her by-gone splendour. I thought respect would have 
restrained even the destroyer Time, from annihilating all, 



TOMB OF ORIGEX. 



193 



I was deceived in my anticipations ; I beheld, upon the 
contrary, howling ruin ! To speak with more exactitude, I 
saw that annihilation of the city which the prophet 
Ezechiel had announced so many centuries anteriorly. 
Some heaps of stones, scattered here and there, covered 
with sand and wild flowers, and worst of all six or seven 
miserable cabins, which were used as a refuge by some 
naked Arabs, frightfully destitute of the commonest 
necessaries of life ; these were all I saw. 

It was in vain that I sought some vestige of the tomb 
of Origen, which in the ninth century was said to be 
subsisting still. Thus hath the Divinity desired to punish 
the ill use which was made in ancient times by this proud 
city of her great prosperity, at the same time signalising to 
all the human kind, how extremely dangerous is fortune 
if continuous and brilliant. 

Some authors do her the honour to attribute to this city 
the invention of the arts of writing, dying and of navigation. 
The Hebrews will hardly listen to the first, but as to naviga- 
tion and the purple dye, we must accord them the honour, 
(if they were not the inventors) of being the first to 
give perfection to these arts, and exercise them ; and more 
especially, navigation which so powerfully contributed to 
the extension of their commerce, and the riches of the city. 
Her situation was well suited for such a purpose. She 
stood, says Ezekiel, in the bosom of the sea, that is to 
say, she was surrounded by it, and distant from the 
continent two hundred paces. 

This isle was converted, as every one knows, into a 
peninsula by Alexander, who joined it to the mainland, 
by the medium of a dyke which he constructed to facilitate 
the capture of the city. 

K 



194 



THE WELL, 



One of the finest and most ancient monuments, left 
us by antiquity, may be seen at a distance from Tyre. 
This is a capacious well, deriving its abundant waters 
from Mount Libanus, and called the well of Solomon, 
not that that sovereign certainly constructed it, but that 
he speaks of it in his canticles, saying, that the lymph 
in this lucid fountain is supplied by waters that descend 
with impetuosity from Libanus. I had not a sufficiency 
of leisure to go and see it, but all the persons who have 
visited it, describe it as placed in the middle of a tower, 
forming a great square terrace, which is built of stones 
of great dimensions, chiseled with such skill and so well 
cemented, that the edifice appears to be a single stone. 
This terrace is ascended with facility by a staircase of 
five and twenty steps, but when you get upon the terrace 
and look down into the well, which seems to be somewhat 
like a limekiln, you find that its figure is octangular, and 
four and twenty paces in circumference. The water of 
the well is on a level with the margin, and issues so 
profusely, that a mill is kept continually at work by it at 
one side, while diffusing fertility as it goes, it spreads 
into a plain on the other, and ultimately enters certain 
channels, which conduct it into Tyre. But 'tis time to 
quit this city, so miserably desolate, whose very name 
has died. The miserable hovels which replace her 
ramparts, in this day substituted for the wall of Tyre, 
are known to its people by the name of Sur. From the 
peninsula, where this city stood, w T e proceeded to the 
port of St. Jean d'Acre, we doubled Cape Blanc, whose 
name is derived from the whiteness of the stone which 
composes the promontory. During our passage w r e saw 
the celebrated road which is known by the name of the 



ST. JEAN D'ACEE 



195 



road of Alexander, 'tis a work which is in every way worthy 
of the conqueror, it is chiseled in a mountain all of stone, 
and hollowed like a canal, the sides of which form a lit- 
tle parapet along the side of the sea, whose waves are 
continually assaulting the foot of the mountain. The 
length of this road is upwards of a league, and 'tis eight 
or nine feet in width. It was made by Alexander to 
give a passage to his army, when marching to the siege 
of Tyre. After coasting by the road of Alexander and 
passing by Cape Blanc, we arrived in the harbour of St. 
Jean d'Acre. Ungrateful for the graces with which 
God had visited it, this city became criminal by its licen- 
tiousness and robberies, by which it was ultimately led 
into^ the abyss of idolatry. It was abandoned by the 
will of heaven to the mercy of the Saracens, who gave 
up everything within it to fire and the sword. Of 
the cathedral of Jean d'Acre, nothing now remains but 
a panel of the wall, and of that of John the Baptist 
only a few pillars remain standing, sustaining a morsel 
of the vault where the head of the precursor is seen in 
bas-relief. The remains of many monasteries are like - 
wise seen, the most respectable of which is that of those 
generous virgins who, moved by the example of their 
holy abbess, disfigured the beauty of their faces to preserve 
the innocence of their souls. The fragments of marble 
that grate beneath your foot steps, the broken columns 
scattered round, upon which you tread the palaces of the 
templars and those of the christian princes, the mansion 
of the knights of St. John, the magnificent arsenal of the 
gallies, the other edifices all alike mouldering in ruin, are 
melancholy marks of the former beauty of this an- 
cient city. In ancient times she bore the name of Pto- 



196 



TART OUR A. 



lemais or Aco, from the circumstance that Potlemy and 
Aeon were the founders of the town. It was so exten- 
sive that in 1191 there were twenty-seven sovereign prin- 
ces regally residing in the town, who commanded indi- 
vidually in a separate quarter of St. Jean d'Aere. It 
was the theatre of the war for several successive years ; 
it was many times besieged, taken and retaken, now by 
our crusading kings, and now by the infidels of Asia, 
and this frequent change of masters was the source of 
its misfortunes. This city's happy situation, its commo- 
dious harbour and capacity for commerce at the present, 

contribute, in some measure, to its re-establishment 

Many merchants have established themselves in this place? 
who demand missionaries earnestly to propagate the Ca- 
tholic religion, to maintain the moral purity of the peo- 
ple, and the fervour of Christianity. Following the sea 
coast from St. Jean d'Acre, we passed in the presence of 
Castello Pellegrino, and then in that of the city of Tar- 
toura : the first is so called because the pilgrims usually 
landed there, and found security within it. Tartoura 
was a powerful city at the time of those pilgrims ; it was 
designated Dor, Dora, or Adora. St. Jerome, in his 
epitaph on Paula, tells us that this saint had the curiosity 
to turn aside and visit the remains of this great city, and 
much admired its ruins. At present it is made use cf 
by the Arabs as a market place for corn, lentils, and peas. 
The Arab market-men dwell under tents made of rushes 
and of leaves, covered with a tissue, fabricated from 
goat's hair, and -supported upon poles. Castello Pelle- 
grino and this town of Tartoura have been equally mal- 
treated by the scythe of time, who destroys all the works 
of man, however stable. Csesarea of Palestine, which is 



HEROD. 



197 



at three or four leagues distance from Tartoura, is a sen- 
sible demonstration of this assertion ; for its large and 
sublime columns, half covered with the sand, the relics 
of its magnificent edifices, its great fosses hollowed to 
defend the bulwarks of the city, and subsisting with 
their counterscarp to these times ; these expensive works 
enable us to see that there is indeed a difference between 
the present state of this lost city and that which it en- 
joyed in ancient times. J Twas indebted for its old mag- 
nificence to the vanity of Herod the Ascalonite, as well 
us to the gratitude of Herod, when Augustus Csesar 
presented him with the sceptre of Judea. He thought 
he could return the benefit in some measure, by confer- 
ring the name of his illustrious benefactor on this superb 
city. It was originally built upon the ruins of the 
tower of Strato. But that which will render the glory 
of this city perennial is, that it was one of the first that 
was illuminated by the light of the faith, in the person 
of the noble, illustrious, and virtuous centurion, Corneli- 
us. The Acts of the Apostles inform us, that God sent St. 
Peter to this city to confer the sacrament of baptism on 
this, the first of the Gentiles that believed. St. Jerome 
says that here a church was to be seen contemporaneous 
with St. Jerome, which had been the dwelling of this 
same Cornelius. This centurion was appointed the 
successor to Zacheus, first bishop of this city. They 
were both consecrated by St. Peter the apostle. A 
panegyric was written by Saint Jerome on four 
ladies who lived together, in most strict virginity, 
solely occupied in chanting the eulogies of God in Cee- 
sarea ; and this holy father adds, that in her pilgrimage 



198 



THE ROYAL SAINT. 



to the Holy land, St, Paula visited their chambers, 
which were greatly venerated in the life time of the 
saint. W e may venture to assert, that these four vir- 
gins have the honour of having formed the first commu- 
nity of nuns in the Christian world. But infidels, alas ! 
made themselves masters of this noble city, whence you 
may judge of its miserable destiny. Csesarea had hardly 
faded in the distance, when Jaffa dawned upon the view, 
Though anciently called Joppa, the Hebrews called this 
city Jaffa, signifying beauty ; and, in serious truth, its 
situation is enchanting. The relics that remain are situ- 
ated on the brow of a lofty hill, from whence you disco- 
ver, on one side, the sea, and on the other hand, a 
fertile and extensive campaign. Salladin effected the 
ruin of this city, and St. Louis re-established it a few 
years subsequently. It was upon this occasion the holy 
king performed a certain exceedingly heroic act of cha- 
rity and mortification. Having learned that the work- 
men, who were labouring, in pursuance of his orders, in 
re-establishing the town, had been slaughtered by the 
infidels, and were lying beneath the canopy of heaven, 
exposed without sepulture, he hastened, without loss 
of time, from St. Jean d'Acre. He caused the bodies 
of the dead, all corrupted as they were, to be lifted, in 
his presence, from the earth. He did more : for in spite 
of their corruption, in order to give a good example, he 
burdened his kingly shoulders with a dead body, which 
his own royal hands laid down in the sepulchre. All the 
pilgrims to Jerusalem arrive at Jaffa ; and the situation 
of this city, though exceedingly agreeable, attracts less the 
attention of the pilgrims than the distant prospect of the 



THE CEDARS. 



199 



Holy Land, which is discovered from the port of Jaffa. 
As soon as we debarked, we fell prostrate on the ground 
— the pious custom always of the pilgrims. The Chris- 
tian Franks, the Greeks, and the Armenians of the city 
visited us immediately, to offer their houses to the pil- 
grims of their respective countries. I received, on my 
part, every possible mark of kindness, and of charity 
from the fathers of the Terra Santa, who maintain an 
hospital in Jaffa. These fathers observe the rule of St. 
Francis, and, according to tradition, their house is situa- 
ted on the site of the residence of Simon, the tanner. — 
The port of Jaffa is celebrated by the circumstance that 
the cedars were received there, which Hiram, king of 
Tyre, sent to Solomon the Wise, for the construction of 
the Temple of Jerusalem. But it is more recommended 
by the mystery which was accomplished here, in the per- 
son of Jonas, when he was thrown into the ocean and 
swallowed by a fish. This harbour, which was of great 
extent in former times, is obstructed so much at present, 
that large vessels cannot enter the bay. There is a cer- 
tain street, lying along the sea, beside the port, where 
they sell rice, coffee, and the soap of Jerusalem and of 
Rama. Previous to our departure from Jaffa, to resume 
our journey to Jerusalem, the Turk paid us a compli- 
ment. This consisted in peremptorily requiring every 
pilgrim in our company to pay fifteen piastres. Infidels, 
in this way, derive profit from the piety of Christians. 
From Jaffa we advanced to Rama : we traversed a por- 
tion of the extensive and beautiful campaigns of Sharon, 
the loveliness of which the Scripture so highly eulogises, 
all adorned and bespread throughout with tulips which 



200 



SHARON. 



grow there of themselves. Their great variety of colour 
composes a delightful garden. An immensity of water- 
melons, of extraordinary size, are cultivated here, some 
of them so heavy as to weigh lOlbs. These are, indu- 
bitably, the best in Palestine. Sharon, or Sarona, which 
gives a title to these fields, was anciently a city of 
considerable beauty, situated on an eminence, from 
whence it looked over all the country. The plain, 
which extends from Caesaroa to Gaza, is exceedingly vast 
and extremely fertile. The natives became converts, and 
embraced the Christian faith on witnessing the miracu- 
lous cure of the paralytic performed at Lydda by St. 
Peter. Rama, which is four or five leagues from Jaffa, 
is less a town than a village : the people of the country 
call it Ramie, which in the Arabic signifies sand, as the 
city stands on a very sandy soil. It has nothing which 
could cause us to make honourable mention of it unless 
that Joseph of Arimathea, who had the imperishable ho- 
nour of giving a sepulchre to the Saviour of the world, 
was its citizen. Gregory of Tours informs us, that to re- 
compense this action, even in this world, on the day of 
his resurrection, our Saviour came to visit Joseph in his 
chamber, where the Jews imprisoned him, and caused him 
to see in his side the ensanguined wound ! It is at 
Rama that the pilgrims wait for the permission of 
the Cadi of Jerusalem, to enter that city without 
impediment. The fathers of the Holy Land took upon 
themselves the task of soliciting our permission, as well 
as conveying it to us, when obtained. You see at a 
quarter of a league from the city, a magnificent cistern, 
covered over with a concave roof, and sustained by 



THE THIEF. 



201 



twenty-four arcades, which were ornamented in ancient- 
times with pictures, but the ravages of time have well 
nigh effaced them all. The persons who conduct you 
thither are accustomed to assert, that this cistern is the 
work of St. Helena. From Rama you proceed to 
Lydda, which has gloried in the name of Diospolis, 
but I hare nothing to mention respecting it. From 
Lydda to Jerusalem, the traveller is necessitated to 
traverse the very rudest roads, ascending and descending 
continually, while clambering over rocks of considerable 
size ; but the joy of quickly entering the Holy City, 
yields unspeakable support and solace to the Pilgrims. 
They caused me to remark, as we passed by it, a village 
in which it is said the good thief was born. It is called 
by the Arabs at the present day, Latroun. The remains 
of a church are to be seen there, winch was dedicated 
at its origin, to that holy penitent who was predestined 
for Heaven on the cross. The Christians of the country 
pretend that the name of this penitent was Dimas, a 
name which is given him by Cardinal Baronius. From 
the village which we have just spoken of, we proceeded 
to another, where a church is dedicated to Jeremiah, 
and which is known by the prophet's name. We after- 
wards descended the mountains of Judea, and found 
ourselves in the valley of Terebinthus, which is at the 
distance of a league from Jerusalem. In order to reach 
our journey's end, we were obliged to climb the interve- 
ning mountains, which shut out the prospect of Jerusa- 
lem. As this city is situated upon the declivity of an 
opposing hill, it cannot be seen until you are upon the 
point of entering it, when you suddenly look down upon 

it from the summit of a neighbouring acclivity. After 

K 5 



i>02 



THE FATHERS. 



continually ascending and descending- by the most 
fatiguing road imaginable, when Jerusalem is revealed 
to your eyes, to express the sentiments with which 
the soul is penetrated, at the aspect of this sacred city, 
is perfectly impossible. At the first and remotest glimpes 
which we caught of its distant spires, we testified our 
veneration of the invaluable monuments enclosed within 
the precincts, by kneeling down like the warlike pilgrims 
of the middle ages, and returning thanks to the Divinity, 
It was on the vigil of the sabbath of the Palms that we 
had the enviable honour of entering the streets of Jeru- 
salem. We immediately proceeded to present our 
respects to the Fathers of St. Francis, denominated 
commonly the Fathers of the Holy Land. These Fathers 
represent the Latin Church in this celebrated city : as 
they were apprised of the motive of my visit, they in- 
formed me that the Holy Sepulchre had been opened 
very recently, and that advantage should be taken of this 
circumstance. I totally forgot my past fatigues, and 
without further loss of time I followed with ihe Fathers, 
who volunteered to be my guides. The church of the 
sepulchre, the most respectable on earth, encloses three 
churches in its precincts, that of Calvary, first ; the 
Holy Sepulchre, the second ; the finding of the Holy 
Cross is the third ; of the three the most magnificent is 
that of the Sepulchre, or the church of the Resurrection, 
as they call it. Its enceinte has an oval figure — its 
interior that of a cross. The church of Calvary is at 
the entrance of the gate of the Holy Sepulchre, and 
that of the invention of the Cross is at its right. In the 
front of the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which 
encloses the two others, a large court may be seen which 



THE SIX PIASTRES- 



203 



is paved with stones in imitation of marble. There is a 
tower at the end of the church which served as a belfry 
before now ; it contains three stages ornamented with 
handsome pillars of snow white- marble. The Turks 
wished to employ this belfry as a minaret, from the sum- 
mit of which to announce their ordinary prayers, but 
Heaven has so severely punished the persons in all in- 
stances, who have undertaken this annunciation, that no 
Turk has the courage to approach it at the present day. 
It cost individually the sum of six piastres to obtain our 
admission to the church of the Sepulchre ; this sum once 
paid, you are suffered to enter or go out at your volitio n. 
The first object that presented itself to claim my vene- 
ration, was the stone of unction. It is the stone upoa 
which the body of our Saviour was deposited, when, aft3r 
his crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea laid down his ce- 
lestial person, that he might wrap it in a winding sheet. 
Eight or nine surrounding lamps illuminate this stone, 
and one is besprinkled with the fleur de lis, being a 
present from our christian king. From the ground floor 
of the church and on the right hand at your entrance, 
I ascended by sixteen degrees or steps to the chapel of 
the Crucifixion of the Son of God. It is placed upon 
the Calvary as they call it, that is, upon one of the three 
churches ; a great square pillar which sustains the vault, 
separates this chapel into divisions. That which hi most 
distant from the staircase of which I have just spoken, 
is the place where our Saviour was extended on the 
cross, and where his hands and feet were pierced, to 
attach them to his gibbet. The nearest portion to the 
staircase is the place where the cross was planted, and 
where he deigned by his death to expiate all our iniqui- 



204 



MARY, 



ties. The pavement of this chapel is mosaic : many 
lamps of gold and silver burn incessantly within it, 
The place in which the cross was planted, an ele- 
vation of two feet, is covered with large stones of un- 
dulated marble. The hole in which it sunk is sheathed 
with silver plate, by the liberality and piety of a Greek 
priest named Siba, who incurred the expense in 1560. 
But this venerable orifice that received the cross of 
Christ, is indebted for its dearest ornament to the blood 
of the Redeemer, with which the place was deluged, 
when the Saviour of our souls shed his life-blood for 
mankind, on the road. At five paces farther on, there 
stands a marble block, to indicate the place where the 
Virgin and St. John were situated, when our Saviour 
from the cross addressed his well-beloved disciple, So??, 
behold your mother, and that deeply afflicted mother, 
Behold your son. In the Revelations of St. Bridget, 
and in the writings of the Fathers, it is asserted, that 
in this place it was that when she saw the crucifixion of 
her Son, that the sacred mother suffered the most cruel 
of all possible martyrdoms, and that, exhausted by her 
sufferings, St. Bonaventure says, she fell half dead into 
the arms of Mary Magdalen. In this martyrdom it was ? 
say the Fathers in addition, that this refuge of all sinners 
offered the infinite merits of her Son as an atonement 
to the Eternal for her clients. Having attentively con- 
sidered every portion of this chapel, I descended by the 
nineteen steps which I had previously clomb, and re-en- 
tered the great church, and following the wall of the 
choir as I turned to the right, the chapel of the 
glorious sepulchre met my eyes. This august chapel has 
a dome, they constructed this dome with joists of cedar : 



THE SEPULCHRE. 



205 



the number of the latter is 131, and their length 60 
palms. As these joists are upright supports, with intervals 
between them, they constitute arcades. These arcades are 
open to give the light of the sun admission to the chapel, 
and to suffer the smoke of the lamps, which burn there 
day and night, to pass in exhalations through the apertures. 
Many of these lamps, of which some are very precious, 
are the gifts of Christian kings. Some were shown me 
which cost more than 20,000 crowns. The summit of 
the dome was anteriorly quite open, a species of net- 
work was all that was attached to it, to preclude the 
intrusions of birds ; but being repaired in latter times by 
the bounty of the faithful, a little dome was elevated over 
the sacred sepulchre, supported by twelve columns, 
joined two and two, which compose six small arcades. 
The arcades of the great dome, which we have spoken 
of above, stand upon a round wall, which was for- 
merly adorned with images of the prophets and of the 
apostles. These figures were composed of stones, of 
various colours, arranged, disposed, and shadowed with 
surprising art. Nothing remains at present but the 
mere remnants of them. Two galleries are situ- 
ated under the dome, and one above the other, they 
encircle the sepulchre. They are vaulted and supported 
by arcades, which stand upon a score of columns and 
pilastres, disposed so as to form an interior space, of 
which the shape is circular. Six-and-twenty feet is the 
extent of the diameter, and the floor is paved with very 
handsome marble. The galleries are divided into sepa- 
rate compartments, for the different Christian nations. 
The divine office is celebrated by those nations, in this 
church, according to the respective ritual of each. The 



206 



THE GARDENER. 



sepulchre, where the body of our Saviour was deposited 
after its detachment from the cross, is in the centre of 
this space, and under the middle of the dome, and is 
surrounded by those galleries which we have described 
to you. This sacred monument, at that time, was no- 
thing but an orifice which had been hollowed in the rock 
with a chisel and a hammer, but it is covered with white 
marble now. It is eight or nine feet high ; and, perhaps, 
six in its diameter. The body of the sepulchre is exter- 
nally adorned with several little arcades, which are stand- 
ing on their pillars, perfectly proportional in circumfer- 
ence and elevation. A more perfect idea cannot possibly 
be given you, my Rev. Father, of this sepulchre, than 
by sending you to France certain of those miniature se- 
pulchres which are manufactured here of mother of 
pearl, and which convey an idea of the sepulchre of our 
Saviour with sufficient exactitude. 

This object of our veneration is not the only one that 
claims respect in the church of the sepulchre. It con- 
tains four other monuments, which are held in high ho- 
nour, in like manner. At the distance of a dozen paces 
from the little chapel of the sepulchre of our Lord, the 
place has been distinguished by a pavement of white 
marble, where our Saviour, in the habit of a gardener, 
revealed himself to Mary Magdalen. The Latins keep 
an ever-burning lamp there, and the Armenians another. 
You enter another chapel a little farther on, where the 
fathers of the Holy Land celebrate the divine office. — 
According to tradition, this chapel is the place where the 
house was situated in which the gardener of Joseph of 
Arimathea resided. It is added, by the same tradition, 



THE PALMS. 



207 



that the Blessed Virgin retired to the dwelling of this 
gardener, to wait in his mansion for the resurrection of 
her Son, and that this Son, so beloved by his mother, 
came at the first moment of his resurrection to console 
her by his first apparition in this place. This chapel has 
three altars, by which these mysteries are represented, 
and which are illuminated by many lamps that burn 
everlastingly. The third is the chapel of the division of 
the vestments, where it is said that the soldiers shared 
amongst them the garments of Christ. The fourth and 
last chapel, which is contained in the church of the se- 
pulchre, is that which is called the chapel of the Impro- 
perium. You see under the altar the end of a column, 
on which our Saviour sat when his head was being crowned 
with thorns : this fragment consists of a greyish-coloured 
marble, three palms in circumference, and ten palms 
high. You can hardly discover in all the rest of the 
world so many touching objects as may be contemplated 
in the precincts of these chapels. After having visited 
them all, I entered the Church of the finding of the 
Cross, which is one of the churches included in the 
church of the sepulchre. Its name originated in the 
circumstance, that the cross was found in this place 
by the diligence of St. Helena. An altar has been raised 
there, which is illuminated by a multitude of lamps. In 
this, as in the other holy places, the Turks permit the 
Christians to say Mass. They derive so much pecuniary 
profit from our piety, that they do not take much pains 
to offer impediments to it. My Reverend Father, I 
must perforce acknowledge, that I consumed the live- 
long night in my visits to these monuments, as well as 



208 



THE PILGRIMS. 



in meditating on the mysterious events which they me- 
morialize. Never did a night appear so short. 

The succeeding day, Palm Sunday, I had the happi- 
ness to celebrate the sacrifice of Mass upon the altar of 
the sepulchre : subsequently to which, I assisted at the 
benediction and distribution of the palms. The father- 
guardian of the Holy Land, a Cordelier of the Obser- 
vance, officiated with the mitre and the cross : a proces- 
sion succeeded, which three several times encircled the 
sepulchre. The religious and the laity bore branches of 
palm, and the most perfect order pervaded their march. 
Their modest demeanour, and the music that they into- 
nated, the rich and magnificent ornaments of the minis- 
trants, inspire respect and veneration for these sacred 
ceremonies of the church of Rome. They occupied me 
all the morning. 

When they were concluded, I was conducted into a 
convent called the convent of our blessed Saviour, by 
one of the religious. Nothing could possibly be added 
to the gracious reception with which I was honored by 
these reverend fathers, invariably anticipating all my 
wishes before I could express them. They persuaded 
me to sojourn in Jerusalem for a period much longer 
than I had originally purposed. On palm Sunday even- 
ing, I was apprised of the necessity of embracing an op- 
portunity which offered of making the journey to the 
Jordan. According to custom, a caravan sets out from 
Jerusalem for the Jordan, on Holy Monday. In the pre- 
sent instance it consisted of three hundred pilgrims. — 
We traversed a section of the valley of Jehosaphat, and 
passed Bethania, where the ruined house of Magdalen 



THE CAPtAVAN. 



209 



and of Martha may be seen, and where the sepulchre of 
Lazarus is situated. The pilgrims never omit the op- 
portunity of drinking of the waters of a fountain where 
our Saviour is said to have reposed with his disciples, 
when coming from Jericho. 

Our caravan arrived at the last named town after a 
few hours march. Nothing remains at present but the 
name of Jericho, which was situated in a pleasant plain. 
An elevated mountain terminates this plain. A cave is 
situated in its summit, where the forty days and forty 
nights which our Saviour passed in fasting are said, on 
the authority of tradition, to have been spent. The 
path is steep, narrow, and difficult, with precipices at its 
sides which horrify the beholder. Such was the place se- 
lected by our Saviour, in which to fast and pray for the 
human species. In descending from the cave, we expe- 
rienced as much difficulty as we had met with when as- 
cending. Having come down to the plain, we found that 
tents had been erected where sutlers were assembled, 
who offered coffee, and rice, and similar refreshments to 
the pilgrims for sale. But food at the time was less re- 
quisite than slumber ; however, this repose did not con- 
tinue very long, as the conductor of the caravan gave 
the signal for departure a full horn- before the dawn, and 
in order to arrive at the margin of the Jordan at an 
early a hour, we departed instantaneously. Two port- 
able altars were prepared upon the place where our 
Saviour, it is believed, was baptised by his precursor, 
and I was one of the persons who enjoyed the consola- 
tion of offering the sacrifice of the mass upon those tem- 
porary altars. 

We saw the Black Sea in the distance which covers the 



210 



FALSE FRUIT. 



site, which those infamous cities occupied, which a pro- 
digious deluge of inextinguishable fire anciently reduced 
to ashes, those fires having burned a basin in that land 
which formed the site of those devoted cities. The dismal 
black and smoking cavity was invaded by the waters of 
the Jordan, which formed a lake of four and twenty 
leagues in length, and in certain places of three or four 
in latitude. This sea is called the Lake of Lot, or Bah- 
rei Louth in the language of the country, but 'tis still more 
commonly denominated the Black Sea or Dead Sea. Its 
torpid, dull, and stagnant waters are never known to 
move unless they receive an impulse from the wind. 'Tis 
folly to seek fish there, for none can subsist in waters 
so corrupted. It is exceedingly surprising, no sooner 
have the salutary waters of the Jordan mingled with 
this fetid brine, than they become so salt, so bitter, and 
so intolerably stinking, that it is totally impossible to 
drink them. Stones which issue from this sea and are 
strewed along the margin, are said to be so hot that they 
burn those who touch them. Ail these evil qualities, of 
which 4,000 years have not deprived these waters, are 
so many proofs of the indignation of the deity, who de- 
sires to testify to all mankind that he punishes at the 
present day even, the bygone vices of those criminal and 
reprobate cities.* 

I must not omit some mention of the trees of Sodom, 
as ancient authors term them, which grow upon the Dead 
Sea shore, at a considerable distance from the mouth 
of the Jordan. In wood and figure, they resemble fig 

* <J The lake Asphaltites or Dead Sea, is the only one which con- 
tains nothing living, whether animal or vegetable." Geography of 
Maltebrun and Mentelle, voh x. 



FALSE FKUIT, 



211 



trees, but the foliage and the form of their leaves are 
much more like the wallnut — you might mistake their 
fruits for those of the lemon, and however inviting in 
appearance, they turn, it is said, into ashes on the lips. 
Saint Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, speaks of their exis- 
tence as a certainty, having seen them, as he says, in a 
journey to the country. An obvious image, the historian 
adds, of sensual pleasure, whose fascinating and seducing 
appearance invariably deceives its votaries. * 

Early in the morning upon holy Wednesday, we turn- 
ed our back upon this unfortunate spot, that we might 
repair, with all possible rapidity, to the valley of Jehosa- 
phat. The caravan halted opposite the garden of olives 
or of Gethsemani, as it is often called, from a village of 
that name situated in the neighbourhood. The garden 
has been purchased by the fathers of the Holy Land, but 
seven or eight olive trees are all that it contains at pre- 
sent. The place where the petition was proffered by our 
Saviour, and where his person and the earth were inun- 
dated with his blood, is held in the highest veneration. 
The spot is a cave of considerable depth, in which two 
altars are erected — priests were singing mass at the mo- 
ment we arrived, who permitted me to say mine in this 
venerable grotto. You may conceive the sentiments 
which necessarily must be inspired by this place of piety, 
where an agony was suffered by the Son of God for all 
mankind. We were compelled much more quickly than 
I could desire to quit its precincts, to assist at the cere- 
monies of the last days of holy week, in the city of 
Jerusalem. We arrived in Jerusalem on holy Wednes- 

The species of these trees is a problem to the naturalists. See 
Chateaubriand's Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem, T. A. P. 



212 



VOTIVE GIFTS. 



day, passing through the torrent of Kedron. In our 
way they directed our attention to a rock where traces 
of the person of our Saviour were imprinted, when his 
extreme weakness compelled him to recline upon a stone. 
"Twas in obedience to the violence of the high-handed 
soldiery who conducted him that he rose from this rude 
couch. On arriving at Jerusalem, I retired to pass the 
night at the convent of the Saviour. On Holy Thurs- 
day, the succeeding day, I repaired to the church of the 
sacred sepulchre, to assist at the ceremonies of the three 
last days. The service is celebrated on Thursday with 
such piety and pomp, such splendour, such magnificence 
and majesty, that the souls of the assistants must be ra- 
vished by the spectacle. The altars are adorned with 
gifts from all the Christian princes, and with the votive 
offerings of all the faithful which comprise works of extraor- 
dinary beauty and exceeding value. The father guardian 
of Jerusalem, bearing the mitre and the cross, officiated 
upon every day of holy week. The pilgrims, the friars, 
and the Catholics received the communion from his 
hand. The sacrament, attended by a great procession, 
was carried to the sepulchre, in which it was enclosed 
until the ensuing day. The Catholic pilgrims invaria- 
bly observe a fast, on bread and water, during these 
three days — Good Friday was employed in public prayer, 
and in various penitential actions. The service was 
performed with affecting ceremonies very early in the 
morning. In the afternoon, the laity, with candles in 
their hands, and with naked feet, and the priests and the 
religious in their surplices, made the round of all the 
sacred places to celebrate the stations, in each of these 
stations a meditation is delivered by one of the religious. 



SINGULAR CEREMONY. 



213 



A ceremony is performed by the fathers of the Holy 
Land, which is very conformable to the genius of the 
Orientals, who are more easily affected by exterior 
things than by those that are purely intellectual, They 
represent the crucifixion with a figure of our Saviour of 
the ordinary human size. The head, the arms, and the 
limbs, by means of some machinery? move at their voli- 
tion. They begin by affixing this figure to the cross, with 
the hammer and the nails they attach it to the rood ; then 
they slowly elevate it, and the end of the crucifix is 
dropt into the opening where that of the cross of the 
Redeemer was really deposited. They sing melancholy 
hymns on the subject of the passion, and ultimately take 
it down, when they place the figure on the stone of unc- 
tion, and to imitate the conduct of the pious Nicodemus, 
a valuable liquor which they bear in silver vases is poured 
upon the body, which is enveloped in a winding sheet and 
placed in the sepulchre. Many persons pass the night 
in this place and at Calvary, in penitence and in prayer. 
Holy Saturday? the succeeding day, the father guardian 
and his friars performed the office, and our sacred mys- 
teries were celebrated with all the solemnity which that 
sacred day and sacred place demanded. But the edifica- 
tion you derive from the modest manner in which their 
functions are fulfilled, only equal your affliction at seeing 
the patriarch, priests and bishops of all the Greeks, per- 
form on their side a pious fraud, to abuse their followers' 
simplicity. These shepherds, or rather these devouring 
wolves, to inspire their flock with contemptuous feelings 
for the catholic religion, assert that the Latins endeavour 
to discover in a shell, (singular enough) some new fire to 
light their tapers every holy Saturday, while, to give a 



214 



CLOTH OE GOLD. 



public proof of his special predilection for the Greeks. 
God gives them, they say? a fire from heaven which the 
patriarch receives descending in his hands. As they 
hear it from their priests, the people implicitly believe this 
fable, which is detailed more fully in Father Sicard's 
letter. * 

I assisted at the office upon Easter Sunday, alike of the 
morning and the evening. All was splendour and ma- 
jesty, the very richest tapestrias adorn the church, as well 
as Persian carpets of the finest quality. In brilliancy 
and multitude, the lights looked like the stars — the altar 
glitters with the massiest plate of the most magnificent 
description — a cross that has been given by the kings of 
France is perfectly beautiful. The kings of Spain have 
presented many massive lamps which are worthy of that 
monarchy. The resplendent cloth of gold with which 
the altar is adorned is more magnificent than any that I 
ever saw in France. The father guardian celebrated a 
pontifical high mass upon an altar which was prepared 
at the door of the sepulchre — he was accompanied by 
several officers who served him — he administered com- 
munion to a multitude of pilgrims who appeard two and 
two before the table in admirable order — it was some 
hours afternoon when the ceremonies ceased, those 
after dinner were prolonged into the night. Having 
ultimately ended, I returned to the convent of our blessed 

Saviour, together with the fathers of the Holy Land 

The following day, the^first feria of the festival, I pre- 
pared to perform, in compliance with the general custom, 

* See a subsequent Epistle. 



CHAPLETS. 



215 



the pilgrimage to Bethlehem, of which the distance is two 
leagues from Jerusalem. 

'Tis a well sized village, with sufficient population, 
perched upon a hill of wdiich the situation is exceedingly 
agreeable. One half of the inhabitants are Catholics, 
the other half belong to the Mahometan superstition. — 
Be their religion what it may, they are continually occu- 
pied in fabricating crosses, and rosaries, and models of 
the sacred sepulchre, as well as of that of Notre Dame. 
These works are manufactured of wood from the shepherd's 
field, or of bones so white as to resemble ivory, and em- 
bellished, as they are, with mother of pearl, the sale is 
exceedingly extensive. The church and the grotto in 
which Christ was born are situated at the end of the vil- 
lage to the east — you are conducted through a court- 
yard, encircled with lofty wails, to the church. An an- 
tique structure which is called school of St. Jerome, 
thirty paces long and sixteen wide — whose vault is 
supported by six or seven marble pillars — is said to 
be a place where lessons were delivered on the Scrip- 
tures by this learned saint. The Armenians make use 
of it at present as a house of hospitality for pilgrims 
whose church is beautiful and grand. Fifty lofty columns, 
each consisting of a single piece of marble, distinguish 
the choir, and separate the nave that lies within them 
from the aisles that lie without. The frieze which leans 
upon the pillars and reigns around the church is merely 
made of w^ood, but its carving is elegantly executed — 
immense windows appear above the frieze which admit a 
flood of light to the church. All the mysteries of our 
religion have been painted upon the walls, nothing re- 
mains now but some half abraded patches. The elevation 



216 



THE MAGI. 



of the choir is three steps above the nave. There is an 
altar dedicated to the Magian kings, which stands on the 
spot where, according to tradition, they descended from 
their camels to do homage to our Saviour. Its length 
is forty feet, and its breadth may be a dozen — porphyry 
and marble constitute the steps by which yon descend 
from the choir to the cavern, of which the fine- wrought 
doors are made of bronze. You take off your shoes, out 
of respect, when you penetrate this sanctuary — no day- 
light is admitted — ever burning lamps alone enlighten 
this recess. The crib is represented by a marble block, 
raised a foot above the ground, and hollowed by the 
chisel to the figure of a manger. It is placed upon the 
spot where the manger of our Saviour was originally 
placed. The locality which the son of God selected for 
his birth-place, is an object of respect to the Christians 
of our times. Ail things, upon which you cast your 
eyes, awaken your devotion and fortify your faith in this 
place — the uninterrupted arrival of caravans of Chris- 
tians, from all nations that believe, who come hither to 
adore their Redeemer in his birth — prayers and prostra- 
tions in the public streets, and other testimonials of 
edifying fer.vour — the value of the presents which the 
sovereigns of Christendom have sent as a pledge of their 
religion to [the stable ; — all the objects which surround 
you dazzle and affect you, exciting a something in the 
soul which cannot be expressed. A marble altar, on 
which mass is celebrated, stands in the centre of this 
sacred cave. Twice I had the happiness of officiating 
here. I am not at all surprised that this place was se- 
lected by St. Jerome for his residence — no locality on 
earth can inspire more devotion. His tomb and his 



STo PAULA. 



217 



oratory still are to be seen here, as well as those of St. 
Innocent and St. Eusebius, and those of Sts. Eustochia 
and Panla. This illustrious Roman lady, an honor to 
the Gracchi and the Seipios, from whom she was descend- 
ed, preferred a residence at Bethlehem to a dwelling in 
imperial Rome, and a hermitage to the sumptuous apart- 
ments of the capital. 

From Bethlehem we were conducted to the mountains 
of Judea. In ancient times, a church was erected on the 
site of the house where the sacred precursor of our 
Saviour was born. But the infidels defiled it — Louis 
the 14th, however, marks of whose piety and faith may 
be found in all parts of the world, withdrew the build- 
ing from their hands. He had it adorned and estab- 
lished, insomuch that it's the finest church at present in 
the Levant. The service is performed by the fathers of 
the Holy Land in a decent and edifying manner. We 
should not be astonished that the sacred precursor, who 
did not exhibit much research in his frugal diet, was 
satisfied with locusts, for in this place their number is 
infinity. He likewise used, perhaps, the small extremi- 
ties of trees to which the name of locusts is applied, 
which the peasants very frequently employ as food. As 
to what regards the honey which the Scriptures speak 
of, the wild bee conceals it in the clefts of rocks every 
where throughout this country. The mountains of Judea 
which revive the recollection of the sufferings of St. John, 
preach penance from their summits even at the present 
day. 

We turned our backs on these mountains and the 
monastery of John, in order to return to Jerusalem. We 
passed upon our route by the convent of the Georgians, 



218 



THE HOOD. 



this is called the convent of the holy cross, for the peo- 
ple of the country piously believe that here it was the 
Jews felled the memorable tree which they precipitately 
hewed into a gibbet for our Saviour. The church is very 
handsome, and its dome much ornamented, but the figures 
of the saints, which were painted on its walls, are nearly 
all of them effaced. 

Having arrived in Jerusalem, I devoted the first days 
to visits to the places rno^t deserving of being seen. In 
the first place I considered the city as a whole. Alas ! it is 
no longer that metropolis of David, whose lofty gates 
enclosed the stupendous temple and the gorgeous throne 
of the wise Solomon, and the crown and glory of the 
Jewish people. To punish a people overwhelmed with 
his benefits, to punish them because they were ungrate- 
ful, it was heaven's will that all nations should contribute, 
as it were, in concert to effect the desolation of this city. 
But as the rights of His justice are never exercised, but 
that his mercy interposes to exercise her own, he wills 
that, raised upon the ruins of the first, a new Jerusalem 
should preserve the precious monuments of the passion 
of his Son, to shew all mankind, in every revolving age, 
the excess of his affection for the species, and how indis- 
pensably necessary was such a mediator. 

These monuments which heaven has preserved with so 
much care are all that merit attention in Jerusalem. 
The town is neither beautiful nor large ; you may go 
round it in an hour at your ease. It formerly embraced 
Mount Sion, but at present it encloses but a very petty 
section of it. Every street is dirty ? narrow, and badly 
paved — you are always either mounting or descending 
in traversing it— the town is without traffic, and conse ■• 



JERUSALEM. 



219 



quently very poor. Its revenue is derived from the 
expenditure of the pilgrims. 

The Greeks have many convents and churches in 
Jerusalem. The patriarch's convent is hy far the finest. 
His church is dedicated to Helena, and to Constantino 
the Great, a monarch canonised by the Greeks. 

The Surians, Armenians, and Copts have likewise a 
convent and a church. The Jews have their quarter 
and their synagogue. The Mahometans have many 
mosques, the finest of which, and the most respected by 
the Turks, occupies the site on which the temple of 
Solomon was erected. As no Christian is permitted to 
penetrate this edifice, I know that its inside is magnifi- 
cent but from hear-say, that columns of rich marble sus- 
tain its gorgeous dome, upon their lofty capitals, that 
a gallery, which likewise stands on col Limned capitals, runs 
round the mosque, and that a world of lamps, pendant 
from its roof in many a row, illuminate its vast capacity. 
This is all I know of it. 

As to its exterior, I have well considered it. Its form 
is an octagon, and its dome makes its figure very pleas- 
ing to the eye — the walls are invested with mosaic. 
The pieces are of diverse colours, and ornament the 
wall with various figures. Arabic characters formed by 
stones, convey choice sentiments selected from the Koran. 
The town has seven great gates, six of which are open, 
the seventh, called the golden gate, is invariably closed. 
This is the gate by which our Saviour entered Jerusalem 
triumphantly. The Turks have walled the entrance up, 
on account of the tradition, that a Christian prince shall 
one day deprive them of the city and enter this gate 
with victory. They have effectually provided, they 



220 



THE GOLDEN GATE. 



imagine, against such contingency, by walling up the 
entrance. The rarest relic of antiquity within it, is 
Solomon's probatory pool. This pool is exceedingly pro- 
found ; it is fifty feet in length, and its width is nearly 
forty ; its figure is an oblong square, and it is lined with 
freestone. At present its waters are dried up, and the 
probatory pool is useless. 

As to the other antiquities of the city, I have little to 
say upon the subject, I shall name them to you merely ; 
they have retained nothing but the names of what they 
were anteriorly. 

Near the gate of the city that leads you to mount 
Sion, they shew you the dwelling house of Anne, or 
rather the spot on which it stood, for it is not possible 
that her dwelling house, or the houses of which I am 
now about to speak, should still be in existence. Our 
attention was directed to an antique olive, to which our 
Saviour, it is said, was tied. One circumstance relating 
to this olive tree is true, viz., no one is allowed to cut it. * 
A balustrade encircles it, which effectually prevents 
persons from approaching it. Its trunk is very old, but 
its branches bear excellent olives, of which the stones 
make rosaries and chaplets, that Christians buy. You 
must cross the whole city from the dwelling house of 
Anne, in order to see the prsetorium of Pilate, which 
forms the seraglio of the Pacha at the present day. 
The hall was ascended by eight and twenty steps of 
snow white marble, which have been subsequently sent 
to Rome, and they are known in that city as the Scala 

* The olive is of unknown durability. The neighbourhood of 
Athens abounds in olives which are held to be older than the most 
ancient monuments of that venerable city. — Tavels hy William Bae 

Wilson. 



THE SEKAGUO. 



221 



Sancta. A vaulted structure stands near the seraglio. 
The Christians, and even the Mahometans assert, that 
the flagellation was inflicted on our Saviour in this struc- 
ture, and that in this place he was crowned with thorns. 
A Pacha's son sought to convert it to a stable before now, 
constructing a chamber over head for his servants to re- 
pose in, but early the next morning his horses were 
found dead, as the floor of the apartment suddenly 
gave way. A little lower down than the dwelling of 
the Pacha, an ancient arcade is to be found where they 
say the Son of God was presented by Pilate to the peo- 
ple, in that pitiable condition to which he had reduced 
Mm. I could see, distinctly, engraven on a stone, the 
commencement of the following word, tolle. 

A road is to be seen at some paces from this arcade, 
which is designated Dolorous. By this road it was that, 
while carrying his cross, Jesus Christ was conducted to 
Mount Calvary. A place is pointed out where a chapel 
had been situated, which was dedicated to the Virgin 
Mary, in honour of the spot where his mother, seeing 
our blessed Saviour sink beneath his cross, succumbed 
herself to the excess of her affliction. A little farther 
on, they showed us the dwelling of the leper Lazarus, and 
to the left they indicate the residence of Dives. At the 
end of this street, the place was pointed out to us where 
the Son of God is said to have recommended tears to 
the daughters of Jerusalem, for themselves and their de- 
voted city, rather than for him. The abode of Veronica 
is somewhat lower down, and Calvary is very near the 
gate. It was entitled the Judiciary Gate ; in pro- 
ceeding to the place of punishment, criminals passed 
it. Our Saviour, the most innocent of all who had ever 



222 



THE PRISON. 



trod the earth, passed through that gate, which is walled 
at the present day. In a different department of the 
city, our attention was directed to the prison of St. Peter. 
It was at one time a chapel, but the Turks have restored 
it to the purpose for which it was originally intended. 

We next paid a visit to that Pharisee's abode, in which 
the heroic act of perfect penance which procured the 
lady the remission of her sins, was performed by Mag- 
dalen. Our Saviour has willed that this act shall be 
enunciated wheresoever his gospel is announced. St, 
Anne's church, built, as is said, upon the spot where the 
dwelling of that saint was anteriorly situate, is very near 
the dwelling of the Pharisee. Under the reign of the 
European princes, this church was conjugated to a mo^ 
nastery of females. Our conductors indicated the resi- 
dence of Zebedee, the father of James and John, as 
well as the locality of the martyrdom of James, adjacent 
to Mount Sion. The Armenians have erected a large 
convent on the spot. The architecture of the church is 
exceedingly peculiar, but great regularity pervades it. 
In a chapel of this church, they have marked with mosiac 
that portion of the floor where that apostle was beheaded. 

My Reverend Father, respecting the antiquities in 
the interior of the town, I have nothing more to tell you ; 
and as to the antiquities external to the city, time having 
almost utterly destroyed; them, I have t little to add to 
what I communicated previously. 

I have often had the happiness of celebrating Mass 
upon the Blessed Virgin's sepulchre. There rises at the 
foot of the mountain of the Olives, beyond the bridge 
that spans the brook of Keydron, a chapel that incloses 



THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 



223 



this hallowed sepulchre. At the entry of this church, 
dedicated to our Lady, the visitor descends to a subter- 
ranean chapel receiving the day-light at the door by 
which he treads upon the staircase. This chapel, which 
is concave in the roof> is sheathed internally with marble. 
Three or four persons are all it can contain ; almost all 
its extent being occupied by the altar, which stands where 
the body of the virgin was deposited. The song of the 
pilgrims, who successively descend there, chanting amid 
the darkness of the monument, the litany of Mary, (for 
the lamps that hang within it cannot dissipate its gloom.) 
Those voices swelling from the sacred profound, the ever- 
lasting gloom, and the glitter of those cressets, the re- 
miniscences awakened by the sanctuary, all combine to 
inspire you with feelings of devotion and respect which 
cannot be communicated. The superior church has se- 
veral altars, which appertain to different nations ; and 
in this place they celebrate our mysteries, according to 
their rituals. The Latins are the best provided for, as 
the altar of the latter is the sepulchre of Mary. In 
ascending the stair-case, you meet a little chamber, as 
well as a little chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, which is 
said to be the place of the sepulture of the saint. The 
tomb of Joachim and St. Anne, a little higher up, com- 
poses an oratory, where Mass is celebrated. 

Between the church of the sepulchre of our Lady and 
that portal of the city which the Christians call the 
Blessed Virgin's Gate, your attention is directed to a 
rock, on a level with the ground where St. Stephen is 
said to have been stoned. Pausing at this rock, the pil- 



224 



THE PROSPECT, 



grims invariably kiss it, while they utter a few aves in 
honour of St. Stephen. 

The mountain of the olives is at that side of Jerusa- 
lem that is opposite the rising sun. Of all the elevations 
that surround the city, the Mountain of Olives is the 
highest. The scenery from the summit is delightful. 
Below you lies Jerusalem : a little farther on the Dead 
Sea is discernible ; and, lying like a vein of light, you 
may see afar a portion of the diver Jordan, and moun- 
tains that swell away beyond it, while, on the other hand, 
Shiloh and Bethania are discovered. Three caverns are 
found upon your pathway in descending, of great pro- 
fundity and length, in the form of a street, in which 
holes have been hollowed of the human length. These 
caverns are called the sepulchres of the prophets. 

The place which our Saviour stood upon, when he 
taught his apostles the Lord's Prayer, and predicted the 
destruction of Jerusalem, is held in the highest venera- 
tion. He ascended from the summit of this mountain to 
the skies. Formerly, the faithful built a church upon 
the spot ; but a mosque, which is octangular externally, 
and circular within, stands at present on its site, as the 
infidels destroyed it. Marble columns ornament the 
mosque at each of its angles. 

It is in this little mosque that the Turks so carefully 
conserve the stone which still retains the foot-print of our 
Saviour : we owe this rather to the avarice, rather than 
the piety of the Turks, as they obtain money from the 
pilgrims for admitting them to see it. St. Jerome says ? 
in his time he had the consolation of seeing and doing 



SEPULCHRES. 



225 



honour to the foot-prints of our Lord. But, according 
to the Christians, the right track was removed, and 
placed by the Turks in their temple at Jerusalem, where 
the Turks describe this vestige of our Saviour as the 
foot-print of Mahomet. Catholics should learn, from 
the reverence they show it, what honour they should 
testify for holy things. x\ little space above this mosque, 
which encloses such a precious relic, a cavern exists, of 
which the entrance is only permitted to Mahometans. I 
have simply seen the door. It is guarded by a Turk, 
who easily dissolves into civility at the magic of a bacshis. 
This was the grotto that St. Pelagia selected to pass her 
days, (as she did) 'till her death, in a round of peniten- 
tial rigour. This frightful habitation, which Pelagia 
preferred to the pleasures and the palaces of Antioch, 
inspires a spectator with a spirit of compunction, and 
reveals to us the riches of the bounty of the Lord, ever 
ready to receive such sinners as return to him with a 
spirit as contrite as the canonized Pelagia. 

Emerging from this city, by the portal of Damascus, 
at the west of Jerusalem, you see Jeremiah's tomb ; it 
lies in a grotto, 25 feet broad, and the depth is about 
the same. The Turks persuade the people that a sauton 
of their sect, that is, that some Mahometan fanatic was 
the tenant of this cave. At some paces from this place, 
those prodigious caverns, the sepulchres of the kings, 
attracted my attention. They consist of many cham- 
bers, accompanied with galleries : they have cornices, 
and many other ornaments of architecture. They were 
hollowed in the rock with the chisel and the mallet. The 
great indispensable expense, in so prodigious a work, 
could have never been defrayed by any but by kings- 



226 



THE HERMIT. 



But nothing filled me with more wonder than the doors 
of these sepulchres. They that cut them out con- 
structed them of rock ; and the panels and the mouldings 
with which they decorated them, are quite as exquisitely 
fashioned as if they were formed of wood ; even the 
pivots, which they hang on, are formed of the rock. I 
asked the most intelligent concerning the princes that- 
had made them, and the monarchs they inhumed, but I 
could not elicit a scintillation on the subject. 

As the time for the departure of the caravan ap- 
proached, I made use of my last moments to see the 
celebrated monastery of St. Sabas. The fervid affection 
entertained by this saint for solitude and penance in- 
duced him to seek for sequestration at an early age. 
The most awful deserts were those that he loved best : 
it was this predilection that induced him to choose the 
frightful mountain on which his monastery stands for his 
abode. This mountain is three leagues from Bethlehem, 
and four from Jerusalem. It is very long, and lined 
with rocks, which gape in an infinity of places. These 
apertures had served as cells and oratories to several an- 
chorites before St. Sabas. The torrent of Keydron 
hurries by the basis of this mountain. The contempla- 
tion of this torrent, which revives the recollection of the 
initials of our Saviour's passion, appeared very proper 
to this holy hermit to maintain a love of penance in his 
soul. He was eighteen years of age, when, from a fer- 
vid inclination to give himself to God, he quitted his 
father and his mother, who loved him alone, and under- 
took a journey to Palestine, at which time he retired into 
the monastery. With regard to this young man, the 
purposes of heaven seemed so obvious to the abbot, that 



THE HERMIT. 



227 



be deemed it advisable to send him to St. Euthimius, who 
bad the gift of guiding novices to that perfection to 
which heaven has invited them. This saint discerned in 
the youthful Sabas great capability for advancing in the 
ways of God. Under this good master he progressed 
in virtue, which increased in proportion as his love for 
solitude, and of abstinence and prayer, augmented in 
his soul. The reputation of his sanctity, in spite of his 
retirement, became generally diffused, and attracted in- 
dividuals, from every side, who were anxious to enter on 
this novel way of life. 

The devil was vexed such saintship to behold, and 
offered him, accordingly, many oppositions. War was 
waged against him by malignant devotees, they many 
times attempted to assassinate the saint, but Heaven 
frustrated their criminal designs. 

With all their evil treatment, they could not scare his 
" tranquillity of mind," never relinquishing the saint iii 
the fire of persecution. Nothing could ever alienate this 
heaven-descended guest, except the death of St. Eu- 
thimius, at which the servant of the Lord seemed 
afflicted. St. Sabas was appointed St. Euthimius's suc- 
cessor, by the volition of the latter, expressed upon his 
death bed. For a long time he endeavoured to avoid 
the elevation, but the solitaries simultaneously prevailed 
upon him to obey the last behest of his superior. His 
sanctity of life and the wisdom of his rule, acquired such 
a reputation for his monastery, that amateurs of the 
world, relinquishing its illusions, threw themselves in 
crowds at the feet of the new abbot, to request the holy 
Sabas to conduct them to the skies ; and in spite of the 
opposition which he offered, he was soon at the head of 



228 



THE HERMIT'S DEATH. 



two hundred disciples, and as the last who arrived could 
not find accommodation, they scooped excavations in the 
bowels of the mountain. Among the number of his 
disciples, St. Sabas discerned several who were suited 
for conventual community, who were less calculated to 
be anchorites than monks. For these individuals he 
erected a monastery, the direction of which he confided 
to one Theodore ; he preferred for himself an eremitical 
existence, and presided over those who were suited to 
be anchorites. A grotto, in which he could stand upright 
with difficulty, was his abode, his bed was the rock and 
his diet was legumes, and yet he attained ninety-four 
years of age without relaxing in his penance. Stretched 
upon his bed, when his end approached, he assembled his 
disciples around him ; he addressed them an exceedingly 
pathetic advice, to cherish unanimity and harmony 
amongst them, and communicate alone with the divinity, 
through the observance of the rules of that solitary life, 
to which they had been consecrated. 

Whilst their abbot thus addressed them in terms full 
of unction, the callous anchorites surrounding him, were 
melted into tears, and resounding from their hollow 
chests, convulsive sobs of sorrow were re-echoed by the 
cave. Drowned in tears, as they were, at this melancholy 
farewell, they asked his benediction. His solitary bequest, 
all he had, was his benison. In bequeathing them his 
blessing, he said, that through the illimitable ages of 
eternity, he should testify to Heaven their fidelity to him. 
He caused the Psalms to be recited, and as the words 
were uttered, I shall sleep and repose my sorrows in 
the bosom of the Lord, he yielded up his spirit to the 
hands of the Saviour. 



THE CARAVAK. 



229 



'Twas thus he expired, crowned with the garland of 
merits and of years. On learning his death, Justinian 
the Emperor, who loved this destitute hermit as if he 
were his son, testified his sorrow by his tears. 

The miracles which heaven was pleased to operate 
after his decease, are so many public proofs, evincing to 
the world, the pure, peerless, and unsullied sanctity of 
its servitor, that canonised father of so many anchorites. 
A fountain bears his name, it is a stream which issued 
from the rock at his request, and which never since ran 
dry. We were led to his sepulchre, which is greatly ve- 
nerated though his body was carried to Venice : a very 
handsome chapel has been raised on the locality, where 
there is an ever-burning lamp, which is pendant from 
the dome. - 

The monks who live at present in the monastery of 
Sabas, appertain to the Greek ritual ; their fasts are very 
rigorous, and day and right, for several successive hours, 
they intonate the eulogies of God. 

Nothing more remained that was worthy of our curio- 
sity in Jerusalem. And now, as the day on which the 
caravan was destined to depart was the 27th of April, 
I repaired to our Saviour's sepulchre in the morning, to 
thank heaven for the favour of having visited these places, 
whose contemplation fills the soul with such affection for 
our Lord. 

I afterwards bade farewell to the fathers of the Holy 
Land, when I mingled with the caravan : we took the road by 
Rama, to embark at Jaffa, where a tribute was a second 
time exacted by the Turk. We proceeded from Jaffa to St. 
Jean D'Acre. We were only at the distance of one 
day's journey from Nazareth ; I should have gone to 



230 



THE BROKEN PILLAR. 



Nazareth, even had I been more distant. Nazareth now, 
as in more ancient times, is merely a miserable hamlet, 
hence it was, that Nathaniel asked, "Can any good come 
out of Nazareth but since the word was made flesh, 
this hamlet and its name must be held, amongst all 
Christians, in eternal veneration. On the 25th of March, 
the day of the Annunciation, a multitude of pilgrims 
annually arrive to do honour to the mother of the word 
incarnate in Nazareth. Saint Louis the Crusader came 
thither with his court. The sovereign, as soon as he 
perceived the chapel of the Virgin afar off, alighted from 
his steed, and proceeded upon foot the remainder of the 
journey. The princely warrior prepared for the recep- 
tion of the eucharist, by fasting upon bread and water ; 
he spent days in prayer before these hallowed shrines. 
This holy chapel where Mary is revered, is built upon 
the site which that other chapel occupied which was tran- 
sported to Dalmatia on the 9th of May, 1291, and from 
Dalmatia to Loretto subsequently. It may be twenty- 
five feet long and eight or nine in latitude : three altars 
are erected in the chapel ; the altar to the east is dedicated 
to St. Joseph, the other to the south is dedicated to St. 
Anne, and the third to the west, to Gabriel the angel. 

A cave, which was hollowed in the rock and which 
communicated with the dwelling of the blessed Virgin, 
was used by our Lady as an oratory. The Virgin was 
at prayer, it is generally affirmed, when Gabriel announced 
the incarnation of the Word ; St. Helena placed a pillar 
where Gabriel saluted her, and another where Mary 
made reply. These pillars are nearly three feet from one 
another ; the latter has been broken by marauders seeking 
treasure : the superior part remains and is pendant from 



THE COUNTRY OF THE GOSPEL. 



231 



the ceiling. Even the Mahometans consider its suspen- 
sion as something supernatural. Adjacent to the chapel 
there is an hospital, maintained by the fathers of the 
Holy Land, where pilgrims are received with grea^ 
benevolence and charity. The relics of a church may 
be seen beyond the chapel, which church was built upon 
the site of the workshop of St. Joseph. 

I never in my life saw a precipice so frightful as the 
formidable scarp which terminates this mountain ; here 
the Nazarines sought to immolate our Saviour, in revenge 
for his reproaches of their multiplied disorders. 

The impression of a knee is to be seen upon a rock, 
where the blessed Virgin knelt in a paroxysm of grati- 
tude, to return thanks to God that her Son had been 
preserved : St. Helena built a church there, no longer in 
existence. After our orisons at Nazareth, we crossed 
the country of Galilee to the sea called the Tiberias : the 
soil of this country, so fertile formerly and full of people, 
is un tilled at present and deserted. They call it the land 
of the Annunciation, or the country of the Gospel, as it 
was here that our Saviour first announced his holy law. 

Some Jews assert that Sapha was Bethulia, but with 
very little reason : we passed this city by, which has 
nothing but the name of one at present ; its people are 
so wretched and so destitute of furniture, as to lie upon 
the ground ; we subsequently crossed the field of Bothan. 
Jacob's cattle must have thriven here, for its fertility is 
excessive ; in the days of Jacob it was more prolific. In 
this field we saw the well in which Joseph was imprisoned 
by his brethren ; it has inherited his name. The well is 
covered with a little dome supported upon four small 
pillars. In continuing our journey we sought for Caper- 



232 



THE STORM. 



naum, we could scarcely ascertain the site of this unhappy 
town, razed as it is almost to the earth. Nothing can be 
seen save broken capitals, fragments of friezes and pros- 
trate columns which appear to have been wrought. They 
are so many witnesses of the anger of God against this 
unhappy city, whose towering crimes called down the 
vengeance of the skies, Her disasters originated in her 
great prosperity, to which every thing contributed ; her 
situation was felicitous ; she stood upon the pleasant 
margin of the sea of Galilee, and the town extended to 
the east over a fine declivity ; she enjoyed in the utmost 
affluence all the requisites of life, for on one side the sea 
afforded fish of every species, and the level country on 
the other, furnished every delicacy desirable ; travellers 
from strange and distant nations continually alighted at 
her portals, joyously repairing hither to enjoy the plea- 
sures of this city. But the hearts of the inhabitants 
became so sensual in consequence of these advantages, 
that they turned a deaf ear to the wonders and the 
warnings of the Lord, wonders which would have con- 
verted Tyre and Sidon in the zenith of their power. 
Many times, as I passed by them, I paused to view the 
waters of the sea of Galilee ; I represented to myself the 
memorable evening of the launching of that happy bark ? 
and that sumblime moment when being with his disciples? 
Christ rebuked the whirlwind, and that too, when the 
man-God caused the abundant draft at which they were 
astonished. This sea may be nine leagues long and the 
breadth is three or four. 

The tetrarch Herod built this city in honour of the 
Emperor Tiberius ; the city gave its name to the sea 
that rolls beside it ; it is called by Luke the Lake of 



THE BATH. 



233 



Genesareth, because its waters to the north lave the 
country of Genesareth. A splendid and extensive city 
in old times, it is a now a days almost destroyed. Alas, 
this is the fate of all the works of man ! Here Prince 
Tancred the Crusader, built a church, as they say, dedi- 
cated to St. Peter, to honor the locality where the power 
to loose and bind was bestowed on that disciple. A bath 
has been preserved with more sedulity, of which the 
water is so warm that you cannot keep your hand in it ; 
'tis medicinal, and this bath is much frequented and ex- 
ceeding salutary. In returning from Tiberias to Nazareth, 
we descended to the valley where the loaves were multi- 
plied ; it lies between two mountains, whence our Saviour 
could contemplate the thousands whose hunger he ap- 
peased with two small fishes and five barley loaves. After 
a journey of an hour, we reached the mountain of Beati- 
tudes, which rises in a plain having lovely prospects on 
every side. It was here our Saviour preached that famous 
sermon which contains such wise and rational morality, 
that in itself it proves the Deity of Christ. We came 
about three leagues farther on to the field of the ears of 
corn, where, oppressed by hunger on the Sabbath-day, 
the apostles pulled those ears of corn, for which the Jews 
upbraided them. Half a league from thence we came to 
that celebrated city where the Son of God performed his 
first miracle. The church has been converted to a mosque 
by the Mahometans, which occupies the place where the 
miracle was wrought. A portico precedes it, of which 
the frontispiece presents three pitchers in relievo. They 
show a fountain at some distance, where the pitchers 
were replenished. The tradition, if not true, at least 
awakes the memory of the acts of the disciples and of 



•234 



THABOR. 



the Saviour of the world. We returned, for the second 
time, to Nazareth — I had the felicity of celebrating Mass 
in the chapel of the Virgin Mary. Mount Thabor stands 
at two French leagues from Nazareth : we were too ad- 
jacent to refuse ourselves the pleasure of ascending that 
celebrated mountain. 

We turned our back upon the town, and departed for 
Mount Thabor. Its elevation is surprising. They as- 
sert that you can see its summits when you are fifteen 
leagues from it. I did not feel it difficult to believe them ; 
for it lords it over two great plains of extraordinary ex- 
tent. The form of the hill is round, and ascends tow- 
ards the heavens like a mighty cupola. We took an 
hour to mount it, by a very narrow path, extremely 
strait and rugged. It is asserted by St. Jerome, that 
St. Paula had the courage to ascend to the summit of this 
pathway upon foot. A little chapel has been built upon 
it. I had carried with me thither the necessary orna- 
ments for celebrating Mass : I had simply time sufficient 
to celebrate the sacrifice, when some Turks of the neigh- 
bourhood clomb the mountain with rapidity, paying us a 
visit, for the purpose of extorting an avany. It was 
with no small trouble that we got out of their hands ; 
and we came down the mountain with more haste than 
was perfectly desirable. 

With the exception of Mount Carmel, we had now in 
this country no place to visit. We turned in that di- 
rection before proceeding to St. Jean. From Thabor to 
Mount Carmel may be six or seven leagues. The fact, 
that it served as a refuge to Elias, when flying from the 
cruelty of Jezabel and Achab, confers celebrity on Car- 
mel. This mountain, or rather this series of mountains, 



THE DISCALCED. 



235 



linked to one another, is seven leagues in length; on one 
side is the ocean, while the waters of the Kishon sweep 
the other side of Carmel. These elevated mountains, 
which lord it over the adjacent sea and the surrounding 
campaigns, eminently merit the eulogies of Scripture, 
so frequently 'bestowed on the beauties of their land- 
scapes. 

The Discalced Carmelites have long been in possession 
of this mountain. They live there at present in the 
mode in which they have always lived, that is, in conti- 
nual retreat and constant regularity. We ascended to 
their dwelling, and were civilly received. A series of 
caverns constitute their monastery. Their chapel is very 
handsome. It was formerly the cave to which Elias re- 
tired for purposes of prayer. In this cave I had the 
happiness of celebrating Mass. The friars of the mo- 
nastery conducted us themselves to a cavern which is 
underneath the chapel. This excavation of the rock is 
a species of hall, the length and breadth of which are 
perfectly proportional, and the floor of which is uniform. 
When Elias gave instructions to the people, he is said 
to have addressed them in this hall, where he responded 
to the questions of persons who consulted him. Though 
this place is so respected by the Christians, it is in the 
hands of the infidels at present. A santon, or Mahome- 
tan religious, is the janitor, who exacts from the pilgrims 
a tribute for admitting them. I spent four days in this 
solitary place. I subsequently joined the caravan, in 
order to repair to St. Jean d'Acre, from whence we con- 
tinued our journey to Seide, the place from whence I 
had commenced my journey. We proceeded all together 



236 



ARABS. 



to return thanks to God for the protection he had granted 
us during our pilgrimage. I have not spoken here of the 
Arabs, my Father, the most formidable enemies the pil- 
grims encounter. The pilgrims encounter the Arabs 
wherever they proceed, and even in places where you 
Avould not deem it possible. They always keep a sharp 
look out for travellers : it is almost impossible to avoid 
falling into their hands ; and when you do fall in with 
these marauders, you can never quit their company with- 
out being denuded of your property. Their only 
means of living is the pillaging of pilgrims. We were 
so happy as not to be attacked. I shall not end this let- 
ter without saying a few words of the cavaliers of Jeru- 
salem. The knights are held in this place in profound 
consideration. The honour of belonging to the order of 
St. John is only granted to such persons as are distin- 
guished by their birth, or the service they have rendered 
to the sacred sepulchre, or the alms they have bestowed 
upon the monuments of Christ. The Rev. Guardian of 
Jerusalem, in his pontifical habits, ascertains, by inter- 
rogatory, the quality of the candidates. Those who 
have been appointed to obtain this informatio n, report 
what they have learned. The facts being found legiti- 
mate, they take the sword of Godfrey of Bouillon from 
the sacred sepulchre, and the collar and the spurs of that 
hero of the Crusades. And first, they put the sword 
into the hand of the new knight, which is subsequently 
girded to his side : they put the spurs upon his heels, 
then the golden collar, with its cross, about his neck. 
After this ceremony, they recite prayers, which being 
ended, a formula, containing his engagements, is pro- 



THE KNIGHTS. 



237 



nounced by the new cavalier. A discourse is delivered 
by the father guardian, in which the dignity of a cavalier 
of Jerusalem is eulogised. He elevates this order above 
every other institute of chivalry save one, giving the 
pre-eminence to the golden fleece. He instructs the 
new knight as to the nature of the obligations which a 
cavalier contracts on this occasion. He recommends 
particularly the good example he should set, and the 
zeal which he should cherish in defending and preserving 
all the monuments of Christ : finally, the ceremony of the 
reception of the cavaliers of Jerusalem concludes by a 
solemn procession around the sacred sepulchre. 

I finish the recital of my journey to Jerusalem with 
this history of the knights. I have nothing more, my 
Rev. Father, to observe, if it be not to assure, you that 
though I had participated in no other happiness save the 
solitary joy of seeing the sacred monuments, those faith- 
ful testimonies of all that holy writ has recorded of the 
death and of the passion of our Saviour. I should owe 
eternal acts of thanksgiving to the Lord, for vouchsafing 
to admit me among the number of his missionaries. O 1 
that I could make my voice extend to all our brethren in 
France, to invite them to come hither to participate 
along with us in those sacred consolations which are con- 
ceded to his workmen by the master of the harvest. 
Come and see, in former times, wrote St. Jerome to 
Marcella, to induce her and other ladies to quit Rome 
and its embarrassments, and to proceed to visit Bethle- 
hem, the humblest of villages. Here you will not see, 
wrote the solitary saint, here you will not see those 
sumptuous and superb edifices adorning the first city in 



238 



THORNS. 



the universe, nor will yon see the vast galleries, and magni- 
ficent paintings of imperial Rome, nor her porticos, en- 
crusted with invaluable marbles, nor the gorgeous 
embellishments of palaces, those internal decorations on 
which silver and gold are lavished to excess. However, 
you will see the manger of the Saviour, and you will 
see the humble stable where an infant was adored by 
shepherds and by kings. Such objects as these seemed 
sufficient to St. Jerome to win Roman matrons to Beth- 
lehem. How many other motives might be added to 
those mentioned to excite our beloved brothers to come 
with us to Aleppo, to Damascus, to Tripoli, to Sidon, 
to Jerusalem, to the mountains of Lebanon, and to the 
valley of the Nile. These lands are sacred, every one 
of them, sanctified as they are by the labours of the in- 
carnate God. Here his first disciples were selected : we 
tread upon their foot-prints wherever we proceed. In 
the cities and the villages, where they announced the 
gospel, do we preach Christ and him crucified. Among 
the nations who received the faith from the apostles, do 
we endeavour to maintain the faith. There we labour 
to defend it, to shield it against that infidelity which 
endeavours to destroy it. 

Opportunity is offered, upon every side, to workmen 
of good-will, by the ever-teeming harvest. True it is, 
most true, we must necessarily tread on thorns : but did 
not the Lord and his disciples tread upon them before ? 
And is it not glorious, meritorious, sublime, to partici- 
pate in their sufferings ? 

I require, my Rev. Father, the assistance of your 
prayers to aid me in thanksgivings to the Lord, for the 
favour of having called me hither to his service, and to 



THORNS. 239 

procure for me the grace of terminating my days in this 
place evangelically. 

With profound respect, my Rev. Father, your very 
humble and obedient servant, 

Neret Jesuit. 



TRAITS AND TRADITIONS 



OF THE 

CITY OF DAMASCUS. 



This town has the advantage of having kept the title 
of the capital of Syria ; though this city has ceased to 
be that splendid town which was founded by Hus, and 
beautified by Dam as, who was steward or comptroller to 
Abraham, who gave his patronymic to the celebrated 
city. 

Cham-Eldemechy is the name by which it is known 
among the Arabs. Cham is the name which the Arabs 
give to Sem, who was grand -father of Hus. who was 
founder of the city. The meaning of Demechy is im- 
bibing blood ; a name which is given it because it is 
situated near the height on which the first murder was 
committed upon Abel. 

Isaiah saw the future ruin of this town, five-and-sixty 
years before it was destroyed* It should cease to be a 
city, he asserted, and it should be nothing better than a 
heap of stones. The prophecy was verified by time, as 
Damascus was reduced to this condition by Nebuchodo- 



CHRISTIAN KNIGHTS. 



241 



nosor, its conqueror. The Macedonians enterprised its 
re-erection, according to St. Jerome, not indeed upon 
the same foundations, but a little more remote. They 
removed the city from its ancient site, because it was 
commanded by the neighbouring mountains. 'Twas 
better to build it in the spacious plain, on which Damas- 
cus stands at present, near the many chrystal rivers which 
irrigate the gardens which surround the town. 

Charmed with its happy situation, the Ptolemies took 
pleasure in enriching it ; but as many conquerors succes- 
sively extended the invading arm over the ramparts of 
this city, the beauty of Damascus became tarnished. 

The Romans, in the days of Pompey, were the first 
assailants of the city. They reduced Damascus to their 
domination. The Saracens expelled the Romans, suf- 
fering in their turn the sieges of our Christian knights. 
The beleaguering army of the Christian knights had re- 
duced the city to extremity? when a Greek, gained Over 
by the Saracens, played his part so well on presenting 
himself before the Christian princes, that he persuaded 
them that it would be impossible to take the town while 
they directed their efforts to the side on which they at 
present were besieging it. He could show them, he as- 
sured them, that part of the city where the wail was 
weakest, at which it would be easy, he declared, to enter 
victoriously, 

The Christians credited the Greek, the army speedily 
decamped ; they quitted the side they had hitherto be- 
sieged, their forces made a movement from the west to 
sit down before the oriental battlements. In effecting 
this manoeuvre the besiegers were assailed: a column 
issued from the city gates which took possession of the 

M 



242 



SARACENS. 



best positions, and altered the direction of the rivers 
which should have borne water to the Christian camp- 
The heat of the season was excessive ; the thirst which 
was suffered by the European soldiers was irremediable, 
it was imperatively necessary to raise the siege. 

The Saracens were masters of the city when the siege 
was raised, but it was only for a time, until Tamerlane 
reduced them. The Mamelukes of Egypt took it from 
bifl followers, and peaceably enjoyed their conquest to 
1517. Selim, the sovereign of the Turks, laid siege to 
Damascus with a mighty army, and expelled the Mame- 
lukes ; Damascus has continued, ever since this conquest, 
to constitute a portion of the Turkish empire. The city 
was surrounded by a triple wall at one time, the inmost 
of the three was the highest of the walls ; the second was 
surrounded by a mighty fosse ; the third, which was 
lower than the inmost two, was supported by the coun- 
terscarp. There appeared upon these walls at little in- 
tervals, towers of different descriptions, some of which 
were round, while some of them were square : such of 
them as time has spared have battlements, embrasures, 
parapets ; at present, however, the intervening walls are 
all destroyed. 

The figure of the city is a perfect square, each side of 
which is half a league in length. Of all the suburbs which 
it once possessed, it has but a solitary suburb now, said 
to be about a league in length. The beauty of this city 
is principally derived from seven rivers, which, if the 
expression is allowable, are quite at its command, which, 
glittering in the plain on which the city stands, maintain 
its perpetual fertility and verdure, so that the fruits and 
legumes, which the city stands in need of, are supplied j 



CASTLE OF DAMASCUS. 



243 



by the gardens that surround the town, and which these 
streams continually water. The water which emerges 
from the fountains of the city, is the water of these rivers. 
Almost every street in this city has a fountain ; the houses 
of the most inconsiderable citizens have one in which the 
water emerges from a marble basin, and from this yon 
may judge of the cleanness of the town. Barradi is the 
name of the largest of the rivers, it is one of the an- 
cient ChrysorrhoaS) rivers which because their sands 
were gold, received the name. It passes by a building 
where caravans put up, supplying water to a vase which 
stands in the centre of a noble court, the floor of which 
is paved with variegated marble. This sombre looking 
edifice is very like a monastery ; there are galleries con- 
nected with the second story ; with apartments which 
follow one another in the fashion of a dormitory ; the 
doors are adorned with mosaic, and the galleries sup- 
ported upon marble pillars. 

Nothing is so curious in the caravanserai as a certain 
mosque, which is crowned with a cupola. This mosque 
which is elegantly built, has lofty columns of the finest 
marble, which highly ornament the inside : four fine 
pillars which are under the vestibule are exceedingly re- 
markable ; — each pillar is composed of a single piece of 
marble, though each be astonishingly high and large. The 
river of Barradi, after passing by this edifice, washes 
the walls of the castle of Damascus ; this castle may 
be considered as a little town, it has streets within 
its walls, and has houses of its own ; five elevated towers, 
of which every stone is facetted like a diamond, protect 
this fortress. 



244 



MOSQUES, 



That celebrated steel which made valuable sword 
blades, was kept in the castle in anterior times. I will not 
undertake to say that there is any of that metal in exis- 
ence now, though it be the opinion of many that there is. 

As to the houses in the city they are built of wood, 
having no external beauty :, their prospect is confined to 
their interior courts ; outside you see nothing but me- 
lancholy walls, entirely free from windows ; in proportion, 
however, to their outward bleakness, are the brilliancy 
and riches that adorn them within ; they are painted, 
gilded, and adorned with furniture, and ornamental 
porcelain, which grouped and arranged with elegance and 
art, stand upon shelves which encircle the apartments. 

Every house has its hall of audience, a divan, as it is 
termed, in which strangers are received, and where the 
persons in authority administer the law, and sit in 
council. Gardens are connected with such houses, but 
fruit trees are all that they contain. 

In Damascus the mosques are the finest edifices, and 
their number is perhaps two hundred ; the most beautiful 
of all is, decidedly, the mosque of St. John ; this was an 
illustrious church at one time, dedicated to St. Zachary, 
the father of the Baptist : they even say that he was buried 
here,and a golden basin stands beneath the vault of a grotto in 
the mosque, and in it according to the Turks his head reposes ; 
but this head is never shewn by the Mussulmans to any one. 

The temple is preceded by a large enclosure, sur- 
rounded by a colonnade, in which to make the circuit of 
the court. The Christians cannot enter ; but such is the 
beautiful proportion and the perfect symmetry, such har- 
mony and elegance pervade the pile, that when the ele- 
vated doors are open, you see all inside of the building 



RETROSPECTION. 



245 



at a glance. The spectator cannot fail to be delighted 
when he sees the order of the pillars that sustain the 
vault, the beauty of the capitals that crown the columns, 
the richly ornamented cornice that reigns along the nave, 
and the richness of that gilding that gives them so much 
brilliancy. But our persecuted Catholics, when passing 
by its portals, cast their eyes along it as they linger at 
the gate, only to ruminate with tears on the freedom of 
their fathers, on their piety and liberality, the melancholy 
changes which time hath brought about, since that vaulted 
roof re-echoed with the voice of St. John of Darney, whose 
accents were so different from those of the Mahometans ! 

After having spoken of this celebrated mosque, I look 
round me in this capital for something to describe, but 
see nothing but that road which is mentioned in the 
Testament, the Latin name of which is via recta. It ex- 
tends from the west to the oriental gate, and it is seen 
holding on through the city and suburb without the 
slightest deviation, rectilineously ; its length is probably 
a league : to the right and the left along its whole extent, 
you are never tired of gazing on the gorgeous goods 
which are here exhibited in shops, and which the caravans 
of Persia and of India, of Armenia, of Europe, and of 
Africa, bring yearly to Damascus ; it must be admitted, 
that the manner of arranging them, inspires an irresistible 
desire to buy. 

Near the oriental gate, at the end of via recta, a house 
is situated, designated that of Juda. St. Paul was re- 
ceived in this dwelling when converted. There is a 
closet in this house which is four feet long, while 
the breadth of it is two ; 'twas (according to tradi- 
tion) in this closet that St. Paul passed three whole days 



246 



THE GUARD. 



without taking any sustenance ; it was here that lie had 
that admirable vision, of which he gives a description in 
in his second to Corinthians ;* and by the imposition of the 
hands of the holy Ananias, the eyesight of St. Paul was 
restored in this apartment. There is a mosque at the dwel- 
ling-house of Juda, and Ananias it is bruited lies buried 
underneath it. Ananias, who in Tarsus had been ordered to 
seek Paul, abode in the great street quite adjacent to a 
fountain, from which he took some water to baptize the 
new apostle. 

Full of this opinion, the Christians drink this water 
from feelings of devotion, and keep it in their residence, 
as if it had been blessed. On the site of the house of Ana- 
nias, a temple was erected by their sires : this church, into 
which I often entered, the Turks sought to turn to a 
mosque : until it had a minaret it would not suit their 
purposes, and they often sought to build one, but ac- 
cording to tradition, the erection of the day was over- 
turned every night, and they relinquished their design , 
In the same street, at the southren side of the oriental 
gate, there is a species of window which served the 
disciples of St. Paul to save their master from the Jews ? 
and preserve his precious life. 

At this oriental gate, a Christian Abyssinian was keep- 
ing guard with his military company. The soldier was 
apprized of the magistrate's design to seize upon St. Paul 
and to give him to the Jews. He called a disciple to 
his side, and he pointed to a window, — 'twas a species of 
embrasure that looked upon the parapet of the highest 
and the greatest of the ramparts of Damascus. The 



* 2 Cor. 12. 



THE ROMAN SOLDIER. 



247 



Christians took advantage of this opportune discovery, 
they let their master down on the outside of the wall, 
and delivered him to liberty. 

The Jews were soon informed of the freedom of the 
person whom they had considered as already in their 
hands. Vexed and disappointed, they searched in all 
directions for the purpose of discovering him. In the 
chatter of inquiry it speedily transpired, that amongst 
the Roman soldiers was a Christian keeping guard. 
There needed nothing more to bring conviction to the 
Jews that this soldier was connected with the saviours 
of St. Paul. The soldier was discoverd and his death 
required ; and alas ! the money of the Jews procured it ; 
they purchased the permission, in like manner, of the 
governor to have the window walled, that it might be a 
testimony, as they said, of the infidelity of that false 
soldier. But in the lapse of time it was doomed to do 
him honor. 

The Christians stole away the soldier's body. They 
built a tomb above his ashes, which is girded by a balus- 
trade which sustains a little roof which looks down upon 
the spot, and keeps the pelting of the whirlwinds from 
visiting it roughly. The Christians, nay ! what is ex- 
ceedingly surprising, the Mussulmans are often seen 
repairing, with respect, to the precincts of the grave. 

We shall go outside of the city if you please, sir ; I 
discover nothing more in the inside of the city with 
which I might presume to occupy your time. 

On the road which conducts to the city of the silent? 
or the Turkish cemetery, very near Damascus, you dis- 
cover an erection, said to be the house of the general- 
in-chief of the army of Benadab, i.e. of Naaman the leper 



248 



FISH, 



The house has been converted, by the Turks, into an 
hospital for such as are afflicted by the same disease. 
There is a mosque in this establishment which constitutes 
its wing. The court is overcrowded with waving 
branches, and the tall and lofty forms of the fig tree and 
palm. A portrait is preserved here, which is said to be 
Giezi's, who, when he was disgraced by his master, 
Eliseus, retired into this city where he afterwards ex- 
pired. At the distance of two hundred paces from this 
hospital, run two rivers which the Scriptures speak of ; 
these are the Abana and the Pharphar, and these two 
rivers give existence to a third, known by the name of 
the Siouf as they branch, a little lower down, into three 
large rivers, having mills upon their margins. In dyers 3 
work the waters of these rivers are of great utility. 
They hasten to precipitate themselves into a lake which 
the Arabs call Ouadi Guthi, or the gulping of the waters. 
This lake is at three leagues distance from the city, at 
the oriental side of Damascus. It is thirty miles in 
length and eighteen or twenty broad, its fish is very 
good, and game is quite abundant in the coppice that 
surrounds it. There's one surprising circumstance con- 
nected with this lake, which is, that though it is con- 
stantly receiving all the waters of these rivers, yet it 
never overflows. There are persons who suppose it to 
have subterraneous channels. I shall tell you what is 
commonly imagined in the country, and what I perceived 
myself of this subject on the spot. 

At a league, or thereabouts, from our mission of An- 
toura, there's a river which is known as the River of the 
Dog. What I heard upon the subject made me form a 
design to make a journey to the sources of the river of 



THE RIVFR DOG. 



249 



the Dog. I was standing in the presence of a vaulted 
rock which had been excavated by the hand of nature, 
and the water flowed abundantly from underneath the 
arched way, insomuch, that many fountains, if united in 
one, scarcely could produce so profluent a supply. To 
me this arch appeared to be twenty feet in breadth, and 
nearly fifteen feet in height ; the water which it spaned is 
the River of the Dog. It is a common supposition that 
this copious flood of water comes pouring from that reser- 
voir of which I spoke above. But in order to come 
here, it must have made itself a channel (from its basin 
to the arch.) which is thirty leagues in length. 

The waters which are found in the channel of the Dog, 
have the qualities of those you discover in the lake, the 
species of fish which inhabit them are similar, and, like 
the waters of the Dog are the waters of the lake, gelid 
and unwholesome, and hard. Xear the under-ground 
canal of which we spoke above, and which issues from 
the arch of which I have made mention, there are gloomy 
caverns of great extent, some of which are upwards of 
eighty feet in length. Nature has produced in the depth 
of these recesses a column made of chrystai, and many 
other figures which could scarce be better formed were 
they chiseled by a sculptor. 

The River of the Dog is little better than a league in 
its greatest length. Two mountains squeeze it upon 
either side, which rise from out the water like two gigan- 
tic walls, and so solid, massive, and impenetrable are they, 
that they seem a single rock from the summit to the base. 
'Tis said that the waters of this river, when they issue 
from their urn, divide into two branches, and that one of 

these arms having dipped into the earth, conceals itself 

m 5 



250 



CANINE ORACLE. 



beneath some rocks, and, deep beneath the ground, pur- 
sues its course invisibly : that the other is the river of 
the dog, and separates the Kesroan from the country of 
the Druses. The ancients knew it by the name of Lycus. 
It has got its present name from its having had an idol 
which was worshipped at its mouth, in the figure of a 
dog. 

If tradition may be credited, this dog delivered oracles 
in so very loud a tone, that the words were heard in 
Cyprus. Being hurled down by age from its elevated 
pedestal, the head was separated from the body by the 
fall. The precipitated body hurried down into the ocean, 
while the head was brought to Venice, if its legend may 
be believed. I tell you what I saw, and have mentioned 
what I heard. The last I think is fiction, but the first is 
a reality. 

The bridge, by which this river is bestridden, leads 
you to a road which is chiseled in the rock. If you turn 
to one side as you enter on the bridge, an inscription is 
perceived upon a granite block, which tells us that the 
bridge was built by Antoninus. 

Imp. Cces. M. Antoninus pius felix Augustus* Parth. 
Max. Brit. germ, mascimus, Pontifex maximus monti- 
hus imminentibus Syco flumini cases viam dilatavlt per 
******** Antoninam suam. A little 
lower down what follows may be read upon another 
table : — Invicte Imperator P. felix Aug. multis annis 
impera. 

About six miles from this bridge, you perceive the 
hill of Abel. Two columns are perceived upon its slope, 
which rear their upright forms on their pedestals on the 
hill, and have a species of architrave incumbent on their 



THE MURDERER. 



251 



capitals. Cain and Abel offered sacrifice to God (if 
tradition may be credited) in this place, and a little far- 
ther on, the impious Cain satisfied his fury on the amiable 
shepherd. 

St. Helena built a Christian church on the spot on 
which they found his tomb ; nothing now remains but 
three solitary columns, but time, as if repenting him, 
has left these unimpaired. 

On the road to Sid on, at nine miles from Damascus, 
your attention is directed to the sepulchre of Cain, 

On turning your back upon the hill of Abel, to re- 
trace your footsteps to the city, the pathway passes by a 
lake, the square of which is half a league. 

The bed this water lies on, is a whitish stone, of a 
bitter and a saline taste : from lodging in the winter and 
the spring upon this stone, the water of the lake con- 
tracts its qualities. It thickens in the heat of summer 
which evaporates its humid particles ; the larger portions 
constitute a white and glistering salt, which, left upon the 
bed, are easily collected. We have sent you some for 
curiosity. 

Two leagues from this lake, in another direction, and 
five from the city of Damascus, there's a monastery for 
Greeks and a nunnery for ladies, whose persuasion is the 
Greek. They stand upon the mountain Sajednaja. The 
females in the nunnery amount to forty, whose superioress 
is known to take the title of an abbess. It will not be 
considered as astonishing in France, that the abbess is 
superior to the two establishments — that males and fe- 
males equally obey her. 

The monks chant the office in the choir, and administer 
the rites of religion to the nuns, while the serving-brothers 



252 



THE PICTURE. 



of the former manage the affairs of both the houses. 

The nunnery is rich, 'tis incumbent on the inmates to 
offer hospitality to all the persons who pass by, and it i^ 
an obligation religiously complied with. 

Fervently devoted to the virgin Mary, the nuns are 
visited on lady's days by pilgrims who gather to the 
nunnery from all directions. Maimbourg, I remember ? 
has made mention of a miracle,* to which this devoted- 
ness is said to owe its origin. The church contained a 
picture of the virgin Mary, from which, its colours 
fading, it became in the eyes of the credulous assistants, 
really invested with a true carnation. The renown of 
such a miracle persuaded me to visit it. They shewed 
me a shrine which was hidden in a corner, protected by a 
multitude of iron bars, from which you see, the shrine 
was sufficiently secure. I stood before this cage, while 
the Cicerone informed me that this shrine contained the 
picture that contained the true carnation. I saw the 
iron bars and some glimpses of the shrine, but returned 
to Damascus nothing wiser than I came. 

The chapel is adorned with the presents of the faith- 
ful, and is bright with many a row of starry lamps that 
corruscate with precious stones of every colour. 

You survey from the summit of the Sajednaja, (the 
mountain whereupon the said monastery stands) the ex- 
tent of the plain of the beautiful Damascus, which is 
stretched at the foot of the Sajednaja. You may see 
Barsy below you at the beginning of the plain, a village 
which was anciently denominated Noba. 'Twas thither 
that Abraham pursued the kings who ran away with 
Lot, and with his property. 

* History of the Crusades, 



HEBREW SCROLL. 



253 



Near that village you behold a cave ; the smoke of the 
sacrifice ascended there which Abraham offered to the 
God of victories, when he rescued his nephew from the 
kings. 

Yauber, there beyond, another village, may be half a 
league from Barsy. Certain Jews maintain a synagogue 
in Yauber. Sojourning in the village, I asked one of 
them, one day, ' 1 Can you tell me," said I, " when your 
synagogue was built ?" " A cave was discovered by an 
ancient of our nation," the Hebrew made answer, " where 
Elias the prophet had abode ; the synagogue was built 
on the summit of the cave, and thither they conveyed 
the volumes of the law which escaped the spoliations of 
the ravagers of Rome, what time Titus brought the 
Temple to the ground." One circumstance is true, be 
this story as it may, and that is, that there is a synagogue 
in Yauber. There are three little chapels at its oriental 
side, and 'tis in the middle-most of these that the Pen- 
tateuch is kept, together with some other writings which 
are written by the hand, in Hebrew characters. 

The form of these books is very different from ours. 
Suppose a sheet of parchment, with another at its end, 
and another joined to that, and so on to the length that 
the text requires : rolled on one another, they compose 
a volume which resembles a cylinder in shape. A coffer, 
that is composed of a very precious wood, encloses the 
scroll, on which the Pentateuch is written, which is en- 
veloped in a web of a valuable kind. 

The cave in which Elias dwelt is situated in the chapel 
to the right. The figure of that cave is square: two 
stone steps bring you down into the cave. It is con- 
stantly illuminated by a quantity of lamps, which burn 
there in honour of this celebrated prophet. 



254 



THE SYNAGOGUE. 



The Jews call this cavern the grotto of Elias ; for, 
according to tradition, it was here that Elias, in compli- 
ance with the order of the Lord, consecrated a successor 
to the king of Syria, in the person of Hazael : and, ac- 
cording to the same tradition, it was here he was obliged 
to hide himself to escape the vindictive fury of the king 
by whose anger the gifted fugitive was followed. 

The villages of which I have spoken to you now, are 
extern to the city on its orient side, but those which are 
blazoned by the setting sun, and the villages which bask 
in his meridian rays, lying to the southward of Damas- 
cus, equally deserve our attention. Descending from 
the Sajednaja, we shall climb the Salhie, to which it is 
united, and which lies to the southward of the city. 
The village in the valley has the mountain's name. A 
cave is situated in the mountain's side, of which the ori- 
fice is fenced with rocks, which were said to be so many 
jasper stones. Forty Greeks, who took refuge in thk 
cave, were at one time massacred within it, having been 
accused of speaking of Mahomet in a slighting tone. 

At two hundred paces from its mouth, on the side of 
the same Salhie, a cave is discovered which is higher 
up, which Christians are not suffered to go near. The 
Turks tell a story with reference to this, to the follow- 
ing effect. The prospect appeared so delicious to Ma- 
homet, pausing on the summit of Salhie, and consider- 
ing the city of Damascus, as it lay in its loveliness below 
him, that he internally determined, upon this account 
alone, to abstain from going into it, and, in order to 
quit it as quickly as he could, he made one gigantic 
step, which brought him, in the turn of an eye, into the 
city of Medina, in which he ultimately died. 



THE PROPHET'S PROSPECT. 



255 



However improbable the story be, the Turks have 
the greatest veneration for a mountain which was pressed 
by their prophet's feet, and thither pilgrims perennially 
arrive, who reverence the ground on which Mahomet 
trod. A pavilion has been placed on the summit of the 
Sajednaja, circular in shape, with apertures, or doors, 
to consider the four quarters of the world, as it were. 
The prospect is perfectly enchanting. A Turkish 
lord was accustomed to ascend to the summit of the 
Sajednaja, to contemplate the prospect every day : and 
now in compliance with his will, the tombstone, under 
which his ashes lie, rears its head upon the sublime height. 
To the west of the pavilion you perceive a plain, to 
which the declivity is gentle ; 'tis known by the name of 
the field of victory. It got this appellation in the holy 
war : and a story in reference to this is related by an 
Arab author. As discord tvas existing in the Christian 
councils, a soldier, more sagacious than the others, de- 
vised a project to convince the chiefs that the discord 
which they cherished would delay the siege. Taking a 
quiver from an archer's back, he lifted up the arrows in 
his war-glove ; the mail-clad warrior, putting up his 
beaver, directed their attention to the shafts; — collectively, 
'twas difficult to break the bolts ; one by one, nothing 
was more easy. " Princes ! the enemy?" he cried aloud, 
as he flung far away the broken fragments, " warriors, 
the enemy will treat us thus, taking us singly and unas- 
sisting, but if discord be driven from our councils, close 
bound together by the ligatures of union, warriors of 
the cross, we shall be invincible." This address, says 
the Arabian writer, enforced as it was by an illustration, 
reconciled the repellent spirits, and the town was taken- 



256 



STORY OF A FRIAR* 



The field on which the warrior stood, when he harangued 
the Christian leaders, on that account was called the field 
of victory, continues the Arabian. 

Though friendly to the Christian army, the Moslem 
cannot be believed when he gives the lie to our histo- 
rians, who tell us that the siege was raised, and that a 
spy prevailed upon the Christian chiefs to change the 
attack, and soforth. 

That the Christian knights, who sat down before Da- 
mascus, failed in their efforts to reduce the town, is a 
circumstance confirmed by the Sire de Joinville, and 
Father Maimbourg. 

According to this Sire de Joinville, adjacent to the 
field of victory, a Dominican, named Father Yves, en- 
countered a woman, who was hastening along, having 
fire in her right hand, and water in her left. fi Pry thee, 
my good woman," said the venerable priest, " whither 
are you going with your fire and water ?" u I am going," 
said the woman, " to extinguish hell as well as to set fire 
to heaven, that God may be served for love alone, hence- 
forth by the family of man. 

When this story was reported to the king, that grave 
monarch is said to have considered it an edifying lesson. 

In speaking of the field of victory, the tower, which 
rears its head on that enormous rock, is too conspicuous 
to be forgotten ; its title is the Tower of the Reconcilia- 
tion, for here the chiefs of the Christian hosts pitched 
their tents and attacked the town when concord had 
returned. 

The precincts of this tower resemble paradise ; there 
the six rivers may be seen, glistering amid the foliage : 
the fresh and fragrant air that comes from the gardens of 



PLAIN OF PERSIA. 



257 



Damascus, and that crisps the rivers that surround it, is 
perfectly ambrosial. These chattels have been hollowed 
by the hand of man, in order to irrigate the plain. The 
plain is terminated by delicious landscapes. The place 
is much frequented by the Damascenes, who come hither 
to sit down beside the tower to luxuriate beneath the 
waving boughs, in the paradise that spreads around 
them. 

The plain on which the city stands, is more extensive 
to the west than at the eastern aspect of the city : the 
portion of the plain which is westward of the city, may 
be twenty leagues in length and six or seven wide ; 
Ouadi leh a jam is the name by which it is known, and 
this signifies the plain of Persia ; it is surrounded to the 
north by three great mountains, the highest of these hills 
is the mountain of the Sheik. Confronting the north- 
east on one side and facing the south-west on the other, 
it is ten leagues long in this direction, and completely 
terminates only at Cesarea Philippi : this celebrated city is 
at present but a village, nothing but its solitary castle 
now remains of all its ancient greatness, which lifts its 
melancholy head in dismal desolation, over some dilapi- 
dated houses. 

There is a gentle elevation of the earth in the neigh- 
bourhood of Cesarea ; it is little more than ten feet high 
and may be half a league in circuit ; it is overshadowed 
by umbrageous oaks, and scattered here and there: citrons, 
sycamores, and orange trees, rear their forms on this 
gentle slope. According to a popular tradition, our 
Lord was standing on this gentle slope when he questioned 
his disciples as to what the people said of him, and as to 



258 



THE SHEIK. 



what they said of him themselves, when Peter took 
occasion to reply, You are Christ, fyc. 

It is from the foot of this gentle elevation, that two 
fountains issue which are designated Sor and Dan ; about 
thirty puces separate these sources, and at about fifty 
paces from the place at which they issue from the earth, 
they form a confluence which constitutes the river Jordan, 
a river that has had the honour of lending its waters to 
the great precursor, upon his aspersion of the head of 
the Messiah. Christians very often drink the waters of 
the Jordan as a remedy in sickness, not that they suppose 
its qualities are medicinal, but rather confiding in Heaven 
for a cure. We learn from the sacred writings, that on 
orders being issued by the Jewish leader, twelve large 
stones were lifted from the Jordan to be piled into a 
monument, to serve as a token to posterior times, to tell 
them how the Lord had made the waters halt, and had 
arrested the river, and given them a causeway for the 
Ark of the Alliance, and for the warlike and embattled 
hosts that followed it. 

A story is related of that mountain of the Shiek, which 
I incidently alluded to above, and the narrators from whom 
I heard the tale, told me that they had it on the best 
authority, having heard it from their fathers, who had 
heard it from their grandfathers, and so on up to the 
fountain-head. 

From the mountain of the Sheik, a river issued in 
anterior times, which was perfectly invisible. It was 
called by the Persians the Aboulouaire, in whose coun- 
try the river rolled in light, though its course was hidden, 
concealed and completely subterraneous, from the moun- 
tain of its source, to the land of Iran, where, emerging 



PLAIX OF PERSIA. 



259 



from the dismal darkness of its frightful caverns, its 
waters seemed to roll in waves of gold in the splendour 
of the Persian sun : but the existence of this, river was 
totally unknown to all who inhabited the mountain of 
the Sheik and the intervening regions, under which it 
meandered. 

Diurnally a shepherd drove his flock to graze upon the 
side of the mountain of the Sheik ; he always was obliged 
to bring some water with him in order to quench his 
casual thirst, as none was to be found upon the mountain 
side, nor anywhere indeed, in its vicinity. This shep- 
herd was sitting on a rock one day, when his dog, who 
had been absent for a length of time, issued very suddenly 
from underneath the rock, and going to a little distance, 
shook water from its dripping hide, with which it was 
completely saturated, and from which the unconscious 
looking animal had just emerged, judging from appear- 
ances. 

Surprised to see the creature dripping wet, he flew to 
the spot from which the animal emerged, but the shep- 
herd sought in vain for orifice or aperture ; nothing could 
be seen but close-bound rocks, without the slightest 
fissure in the stony belt which they formed, on the 
mountain's side. He climbed the mountain the succeeding 
day, his sheep were scattered in the same directions, his 
dog had hurried from the shepherd's foot, and was busily 
engaged in smelling at the rocks, he saw him disappear 
beneath a giant block, where burning, with the fever of 
excited curiosity, the shepherd in an agony awaited his 
return. 

He returned very speedily, dripping from saturity, 
and first having shook himself repeatedly and furiously, 



260 



THE TREASURE SEEKER. 



he performed some half antics and then shook himself 
again, and when the moisture of his hide was sufficiently 
removed, and all danger was dispelled of his dogship 
getting cold, he leaped, gamboled, bounded, and shouted 
out his exstacy, as if he had performed some astonishing 
achievement, for which he thought his master should 
reciprocate his joy. The master could no longer hesitate 
believing that water lay concealed beneath the stones ; 
but in order to discover it he must begin by removing 
the rocks under which it lay concealed. 

He returned the next day with all the instruments ne- 
cessary, for such an enterprise : the dog led the way, 
as he was wont to do, and then disappeared beneath the 
rocks, and shewed where the shepherd should begin his 
toils. 

With many heavy blows of his pickaxe he endeavoured 
to effect the initials of an opening ; as soon as it was 
made and that the shell fell in, he perceived a concavity 
under which he glided, and with a palpitating heart and 
a corruscating eye, and with his canine companion for a 
solitary guide, he entered on these singular adventures. 

He had not gone very far into the bowels of the earth, 
when he heard delightedly, hollow reverberations of a' 
waterfall; he took courage at the sound; but he found 
it very hard to exercise his pickaxe, it being necessary 
now to stoop his figure and to proceed into the earth all- 
fours. 

In spite of the many difficulties by which he was im- 
peded, our adventurer continued to advance, breaking 
with reiterated blows the rocky obstructions of his narrow 
way, till he found himself, in fine, in a second cave, 
from whence he perceived an immensity of water which 



PERSIAN LORDS. 



261 



issued with the utmost affluence, and was being rapidly 
precipitated by two different canals. 

Delighted and surprised at this discovery, the shep- 
herd, as he stood beside'the streams, felt suddenly inspired 
to stop up one of them : he complied with this involuntary 
inclination, and it will ultimately be seen that the shep- 
herd acted wisely, for it very often happens that first 
thoughts are best, the difficulty being to know when they 
are so. The shepherd was so cautious as to shut the 
aperture by which he penetrated to the two canals, in 
order that no one else might share the secret. 

Having ascertained this hidden treasure, he elatedly 
retired when this was done. He frequently returned 
to the same declivity ; the herbage growing upon the slope 
was fine and odoriferous, to which his flock was partial, 
and upon the hill side there our shepherd never wanted 
water. 

A year had passed away, when one fine day three 
Persian lords were seen arriving, and entering on the 
plain, and riding for Damascus. These cavaliers were 
seen to rein their horses and enquire from underneath 
their black mustachios, of every soul that passed them 
by, where was the source of the Aboulouaire ; they 
knew, they continued, from traditions of their land, 
that it must be somewhere in the " plain of Persia 
they added, that lately, to their great surprise, the bed 
of the river was run dry in Persia. " We have been 
deputed to ascertain the cause, and hence have we visited 
your country," continued these illustrious horsemen; " we 
have been entrusted with treasures for the recompense 
of him who can communicate the knowledge we require." 
The news of their arrival and the motive of their journey, 



262 



THE LOST RIVER. 



together with the rumour of the recompense, reached 
the shepherd's ears. All he heard upon the subject in- 
spired him with the notion that the underground canal, 
whose waters he had darned, was really the fountain of 
the river of the Persians. Full of this opinion, he 
sought the Persian envoys. " If you are right in your 
conjecture, that the fount iin of the river is anywhere 
at all circumjacent to the plain, I shall undertake to find 
it," said the shepherd to the Persians. 

The envoys were delighted at the hopes that he held 
out, and on their side the noblemen renewed the promise 
of regally rewarding him, in case he were successful. 
When he saw them preparing to assist him in the search, 
the shepherd brought the Persians to a pause, by telling 
them that time would be necessary, in order to discover 
it ; that as envoys they had nothing in the world more 
to do than to return to their country, and he would send 
them word, according as his efforts were successful or 
unfortunate. 

This answer did not satisfy the Persian envoys, whose 
purpose was repeated, of pursuing in his company, the 
researches which the shepherd should commence, a pur- 
pose which he met with a multitude of difficulties. 
Weary with their absence from their native country, and 
meeting nobody that made them such an offer as the 
shepherd, the Persians thought it better in the end to 
bargain with this shepherd as to what he should require, 
than to continue in their exile, expecting an event which 
was very far from certain. Meanwhile, to prevail upon 
the shepherd to be prompt in his researches, they gave 
him an earnest of his recompense, and turning their 



Persians' return. 



263 



backs upon Damascus, set out on their return to their 
native land. 

The moment that the shepherd saw their forms fade 
away on the far horizon of that spacious plain upon which 
the city of Damascus stands, this shepherd hurried to 
destroy the dam. The wave shot foaming down the 
hollow channel quite as rapid and abundant as before. 
As they were now re-established in their first condition, 
the shepherd often visited the two canals to discover if 
their currency continued undiminished. As the waters 
fled along their gloomy bed as full as if they would flow 
for ever, he waited with impatience for a messenger 
from Persia. 

The envoys, half disheartened as they went upon 
their way, were not so expeditious as the waters, which, 
never pausing night or day, brought joy and acclamation 
into Persia long before the wearied horsemen hadjaccom- 
plished half their journey. Jaded as they were, they 
seemed to get new life, on arriving in their native land, 
when informed that the river was running in its bed, 
They were overwhelmed with congratulation, and were 
led along the banks of the Aboulouarie in something 
like a Roman triumph. 

As every one was asking why the river had run dry, 
the envoys recounted what had happened them ; they 
described the gratitude they felt for the shepherd, and 
the recompense they promised him. They speedily sent 
back the promised gold, and the money was delivered to 
the shepherd. 

Many, many years elapsed, and the headlong flood of 
the Aboulouarie was fully as affluent as before, when it 
was suddenly perceived that the water was diminishing ; 



264 



THE SECRET. 



they were still more astonished when it ceased to run. 
and the parched bed of the Aboulouaire, denuded of a 
single drop of moisture, became scorched and burned by 
the summer sun. The waters would return when the 
season changed, they hoped, but when the winter came 
the Aboulouaire was dry, so they determined upon doing 
what they did before. Their messengers received the 
same instructions which had been given to the first 
ambassadors. 

Furnished, as they were, with these instructions, they 
went right to the village of the plain where the shepherd 
had abode. They were very much surprised to learn, on 
arriving, that the shepherd whom they sought was long 
since dead. 

They were wholly at a loss ! when it dawned upon 
their minds that the shepherd might have sons who 
would render them the service which their nation had 
received from the parent before. 

The father falling sick, and not hoping to recover, 
called his eldest son beside him. " Before I leave the 
world, 5 ' said the father to the son, " I shall leave you a 
token of paternal love ; my son, it is a secret which no 
one else shall know." 

He related every circumstance connected with the 
river ; he besought the son with fervency to keep the 
secret, and he and his posterity should never want for 
gold. A li ttle after this the father died, and the son, 
solicitous to see the marvels, lost no time in repairing to 
the place. He found everything exactly as the father 
had described it — the rapid current and the two canals, 
and the dark and dismal cavern through which it was for 
ever foaming. 



THE PERSIANS. 



265 



To enjoy the good fortune which his father promised 
him, with as little loss of time as well might he, the 
stripling, with rapidity, built up the dam. He expected 
that the river would run dry in Persia, that they would 
send a deputation as they did before, which he expected 
would produce him a valuable present. The event cor- 
responded with these expectations. The Persians repaired 
to the children of the shepherd. Of these the eldest ap- 
peared in the presence of the envoys. Having ascer- 
tained their will, he promised to exert himself to do as 
much for them as his father did before him, while the 
Persians, upon their side, promised to reward him still 
more handsomely. The messengers requested, (when 
the bargain was concluded,) that the shepherd would 
shew them the Aboulouaire. Wishing to conform to his 
father's will, the stripling was exceedingly unwilling to 
comply ; he met the proposition with innumerable diffi- 
culties. They followed up their purpose with eagerness 
and energy ; he parried all their queries for a length of 
time, successfully, but they played their part so well, 
and gave him so much money, which was nothing but an 
earnest of his recompense they told him, that his deter- 
mination thawed in the glitter of their gold. He fool- 
ishly consented to conduct them to the place to which 
they were so anxiously solicitous of going. They saw the 
waters issue with unspeakable delight ; but while they 
were surveying the two grand canals, they were as- 
tonished at discovering that one of them was dammed. 
The barrier was broken at the messengers' commands. 
The moment it was open, it was entered by the wave 
and the canal was overflowing in the twinkling of an 
eye. 

The Persians very easily perceived the fraud. They 



266 



THE DISCOVERY. 



did not entertain the slightest doubt but their river had 
been dried by the damming of the fountain. 

The only object then was to obtain security that it 
never should be done a second time. But they were not 
content to have the shepherds' word : they took the ut- 
most care to publish to the world, where the sources of 
the river were discovered, that no one, henceforth, be 
he who he might, should dam the fountain in the sum- 
mit of the Sheik, or dessicate the river in the vales of 
Persia. 

Such is the story that is related here, and considered 
as authentic in every particular, and hence it is, that a 
portion of the plain, on which the city stands, is known 
to the natives as the plain of Persia. As to what con- 
cerns the Aboulouaire, we learn from intelligent and 
curious travellers, that a lake, existing in this plain of 
Persia, is probably the source of the Aboulouaire ; that 
it enters the canal and passes into Persia, and finds an 
outlet in the Persian Gulf : that as to the waters of the 
other arm, they pass into the river of the Dog, to min- 
gle with the Mediterannean eventually. Truly, the 
prophet had reason to exclaim, that in His distribution 
of the waters that irrigate the earth, the Deity is ad- 
mirable* 

Before we emerge from the meadow of Damascus, we 
must not omit that, descending from the Sheik, you 
meet, upon your road, near the village of Beitima, a 
tomb, about thirty feet in length, considered by the peo- 
ple as the tomb of Nimrod. This tomb has the antique 
structure of the ancient Oriental sepulchres. The tombs, 
which are said to be of Seth and Noah, which I have 
encountered in the plains of Balbec, and which are certain- 
ly of great antiquity, are, in every way, similar in structure, 



NIMROD. 



267 



According to the popular account, the tomb of this 
unhappy and ambitious prince is never watered by 
the dews of heaven, even though the land is satu- 
rated which encircles it. The unhallowed tomb, 
of Xestorius, the heresiarch, who endeavoured to de- 
prive our blessed lady of her quality of mother of 
the Deity, is also said to be unvisited by the falling dew. 
Having given an account of all that seems most singular 
in the city and the circumjacent plain, I should add, to 
the glory of our Saviour's grace, and to the correspon- 
dence of St. Paul, some account of whatever I considered 
with respectful eyes, in the place where the illustrions 
apostle was converted. 

The old road runs between two mountains : one of 
these mountains may be distant from the other perhaps a 
hundred feet. The mountain which is nearest to the old 
highway, is known by the name of Kaucac, which sig- 
nifies celestial light, — an appellation derived from that 
resplendent light which so suddenly enveloped the apos- 
tle of the Gentiles. The other, which is circular in its 
circumference, is called Medciouar el Kanbab, the trans- 
lation of which is the luminous circle. A dilapidated 
monastery lifts its melancholy form in the middle of this 
mountain, of which a chamber under ground is the only 
portion that continues perfect. 

It was between these two mountains that the man, pre- 
destined by the Lord to carry the flambeau of the faith 
to remote and foreign nations, was going on his journey, 
" and suddenly alight from heaven sinned round about him, 
and falling on the ground, he heard a voice, saying, &c. 

Recovered from his stupefaction, with the words of 
the Lord still ringing in his ears, in tones of thunder, he 
retired to the cave or chamber under ground, of which 



268 



CAVE NEAR DAMASCUS. 



I have already spoken : thence he proceeded to Damas- 
cus, in order to comply with the orders of the Lord. 
Having issued from the city, some time after, (if tradi- 
tion may be credited,) the apostle took refuge in the 
same cave, the better to escape the fury of the Jews. 

Many of our missioners have gone into the grotto, by 
whom I am informed, that you cannot look upon its rug- 
ged sides without feeling more or less the genius loci. 

The apostle, in proceeding to Damascus, passed through 
the villages of Dadaida^ Jahnaia, and Cherafre. These 
villages are now inhabited by Turks, who cultivate the 
plain, and render it productive in cotton, corn, mulber- 
ries and barley, and in all sorts of legumes. Two great 
mountains terminate the plain ; one of which is called 
Chafumehary, and the other, which is higher, is deno- 
minated Manaa. South-westward of Damascus, and 
beyond the mountain, from the summit of the latter, you 
perceive the plain of Hauran. This plain is the country 
of Abraham. The towns which were anciently situated 
here are now-a-days in ruin ; such is the fertility of 
this expanse, that it is called the granary of Turkey, 
Caravans arrive, almost diurnally, from every province 
of the empire, occupied for ever in exporting corn ; of 
the meal, which is most excellent, loaves are made, which 
are two feet long, and are half a foot in thickness. They 
will last for a year without corruption. They dip it in 
water when the bread is stale, and find it then as palata- 
ble as if it were new-baked. Whether poor or rich, they 
prefer it to all other bread. 

In concluding this account, I cannot quote a higher 
eulogy than that which the prophets have passed upon 
Damascus. They call it the abode of pleasure, and its 
precincts are entitled places of delight. 



TO FATHER FLEURIAU, S.J. 



Naxos, 20th March, 1701. 

My Rf.v. Father. 

I deem it my duty, in compliance with your wishes, 
to acquaint you with the blessings bestowed by heaven 
on our missions to the Grecian islands. Siphanto, Ser- 
pha, Thermia, and Andros, are the islands traversed by 
us last year. Help us to express our gratitude to God 
for the good he has done by the medium of our missions. 

The island of Siphanto is fifteen leagues in circuit. 
The country is fine, and the climate is benignant. You 
meet many lucid fountains there, whose waters are like 
chrystal, as well as multitudes of olives, which make 
admirable oil ; corn, fruits, wine, cotton, capers . and 
legumes are exceedingly abundant. Fruit trees, of the 
species of the orange and the lemon, would exist in more 
abundance if more sedulously cared. The revenue of 
this island was, at one time, considerable. They shew 
subterraneous excavations at the present day, from which, 
in ancient times, they say, that gold and silver were 



270 



THE VENETIAN CHEMIST. 



extracted, and traces of furnaces are found in fact, where 
they purified these metals as they drew them from the 
mine. The French consul, M. Guyon, says, that during 
the last war, an able chemist, a Venetian, put the matter 
to the test — from 801bs. of ore he took 181bs. of silver. 

The people of Siphanto are affable, laborious, and 
humane : they speak a dulcid Greek, a little less alloyed 
than the language of the adjacent islanders. A large 
village, surrounded by a wall, which they designate a 
castle, together with eight hamlets, which contain six 
thousand souls, compose all their habitations. Cotton 
web and pottery make all the materials of their com- 
merce. The Greek bishop has his dwelling at Siphanto. 
His diocess embraces eight islands in addition, Serfo^ 
Myconi, Amorgo, Nio, Stampalia, Naphi, Siehino, and 
Policandro. 

This prelate, who is forty years of age, is a man of 
much intelligence, and speaks his language with elegance. 
There are forty-five parochial churches in the isle, and 
each church is attended by its particular Papa. Exclusive 
of these five-and-forty parishes, a number of chapels 
may be seen here and there in the campaign and on the 
hills. They are neat in their exterior, and present a 
pleasing aspect at a distance. At the feasts of the saints 
to whom they are dedicated, they celebrate the sacrifice 
of Mass, and multitudes assemble to the ceremony. In 
this island there exist three monasteries for females, and 
two for men ; the most considerable of these is in the 
centre of the isle. This convent is well built, and its 
church, dedicated to our lady, is a very pretty edifice. 
Its inhabitants consist of twelve Caloyers, and five secu- 
lar priests. The second monastery has four Greek 



THE CALO YETIS. 



271 



monks : it is dedicated to Elias, and stands upon the 
summit of a very lofty mountain. The third has been 
abandoned, having now-a-days no revenue. In Greece, 
the bishops are selected from the regulars, and should a 
secular be chosen, he must first assume the habit, and 
profess himself a monk, in some monastery or other. The 
nunneries are likewise in the open country. There are 
thirty-six nuns in one, and about twenty in the other, 
who are all in advanced years, and subsist upon their la- 
bour. They are virtuous and pious, and would probably 
be more so, if the people from without had not liberty 
to enter whenever it seems good to them. Though these 
nunneries have no cloister, no one ever heard it said, 
that they receive the slightest insult. Infidels consider 
the habitations of the sex as a species of sanctuaries : it 
would be a crime amongst the Turks to do any thing 
within them offensive to good manners. The Latin 
ritual has fallen at Siphanto. There are only two small 
churches in which it is observed, of which one is in the 
castle, and dedicated to St. Anthony, and attended by a 
vicar, who relieves the Latin bishop of Milo. The other, 
in the country, is devoted to the virgin. Six families 
constitute the Latin congregation, and even these fami- 
lies are foreigners. It was not so formerly. The Latin 
ritual flourished in Siphanto before now. The Gozadini, 
who commanded in the country, were of the Latin rite ; 
but, since the invasion of the Turks, their descendants, 
like those of other families, degenerated gradually, and 
now-a-days are Greeks. We landed in Siphanto on 
July the 24th ; Father Luchon and myself, and M. Des- 
land, who had been appointed to perform operations in 
chirurgy, in which he is so skilful. Our first occupa- 



272 



GREEK BISHOF. 



tion was to visit the Greek bishop, to ask his permission? 
in order to exercise our ministry. He received us very 
coldly at our entrance, but no one could be kinder in the 
end. Before our departure from the capital of Turkey? 
my Lord, the archbishop of Spiga, the patriarchal vicar 
for the holy Roman See, throughout all the patriarchate 
of Constantinople, had had the kindness to provide us 
with an honourable patent, the most ample in its nature 
we could possibly desire, by which all the powers of his 
lordship were conceded to us* His majesty's ambassador 
in Turkey, M. Feriol, expedited us another for the 
safety of our persons. This honourable minister, alike 
zealous for the honour of religion, and for that of the 
French name, declared to all, whether infidels or Chris- 
tians, that the protection of his majesty was over us, 
and that we should not only be allowed to come and go 
wherever it seemed good to us, but that they should do 
us such good offices as our occasions should require, 
The principal village was the place in which we first be- 
gan our mission. We took care, before h»»^> *° p™^ 
chase whatever we stood in need of, for fear we should 
be burthensome to any one. These poor people, to 
whom they sell the most gratuitous functions of religion, 
were exceedingly delighted at our disinterestedness, 
convinced, in consequence, that the only object that we 
had in view was simply to direct them to the path-way 
of salvation. They could not restrain themselves from 
exhibiting their gratitude. The sermons, which we 
preached to great crowds of people who assembled 
every day, fiom all quarters of the island — the lessons 
in religion we imparted to the children, and our regu- 
lated visitations to the sick — the gratuitous administer- 



FAKE WELL. 



273 



ings of remedies, during upwards of three weeks, were 
our only occupations. Our sermons were attended by 
the bishop more than once, and affected by the feelings 
of compunction which the weepings of the people tes- 
tified, he often eulogised us in the presence of the au- 
ditors, exhorting us to labour to sanctify those souls 
which the Lord had confided to his keeping. We were 
thus engaged to traverse all the hamlets of the isle which 
had not a less occasion for our aid. Every evening and 
morning a great crowd of people were addressed by 
Father Luchon. As the churches were insufficient to con- 
tain the congregations, he was under the necessity of 
preaching in the open air. The profound silence with 
which they listened to him was only interrupted by their 
tears and sighs. The remainder of our day was con- 
sumed in teaching little children, in visiting the sick, 
and those different houses where several families assem- 
ble for purposes of labour. We gave them instructions 
in these places, on the subject of their duties, and we 
responded to their difficulties in the way of conversation, 
without interrupting their labours. The public preach- 
ings were scarce of more utility than the private con- 
versations. The reception of the sacraments, which, 
for the preceding twenty years, several persons had dis- 
used, a reformation of gross abuses, and the change of 
manners, were the fruits which we extracted from our 
toils. After consuming two months and a half in labours 
such as these, the time was come, we thought, for pass- 
ing over to the isles in the vicinity. At the first report of 
our departure, these good islanders gathered round us 
in a crowd : priests, men, women, children, young and 

old, laity and clergy, all shed tears as if some universal 

ic 5 



274 



LETTER PATENT. 



calamity had visited them You are our fathers, they 
exclaimed, the angels of our dwelling-houses, the guides 
of our salvation ; in the name of Jesus Christ, have pity 
on us — abandon us not. So many marks of tenderness 
accompanied these words, we ourselves could not res- 
train our tears : we partially consoled them by holding 
out the hope that we might soon return, and haply take 
up our residence among them, for the purpose of main- 
taining them in the pious resolutions they had formed. 
But, before consenting to our departure, they endea- 
voured to testify the gratitude they felt for us by a 
letter patent, which was signed by three and fifty indi- 
viduals, including the principal persons of the island, as 
well as the curates of Siphanto. Translated word for 
word, this patent is as follows : — 

We, the Primate and Chiefs of the people, under- 
signed, return our humble thanksgiving to the Saviour ? 
for the succour he has sent us in the persons of the Rev. 
Fathers Jacques Xavier Portier and John Luchon, re- 
ligious of the company of Jesus. Justice, truth, and 
gratitude compel us to testify to all mankind, that they 
have conducted themselves here as Priests, who were 
worthy of the Gospel, to the very great advantage of 
our island ; they seemed to seek for nothing but the 
glory of the Lord and the eternal interest of men ; their 
conversation is extremely edifying, their councils very 
salutary, their doctrine very sound, their disinterested 
and unwearied application to preaching in the churches, 
the houses, and the squares, in confessing sinners and 
visiting the sick, have edified us exceedingly, and the 
fruits they brought to maturity in this place, afford con- 
solation to us all. We have been assisted in our need 



FAREWELL. 



275 



by these venerable Frenchmen, not only in spiritual 
diseases, but in those that are corporeal ; their house 
was never shut to the patients of our isle, to whom they 
distributed excellent remedies without any recompense, 
except that which God bestows on charity. We regard 
them as physicians of our bodies and our souls, as im- 
mediate parents, and as new apostles. The benedictions 
and the praises with which our island overwhelms them, 
the tears and prayers with which we now accompany 
them, evince how much we are affected by all that they 
have done for us. We should be happy to retain them 
here, but their zeal, which embraces all the family of 
man, admits not of it. Happy are the people who even 
like ourselves, may be able for an interval to see the 
good example and to hear the holy words of these ser- 
vants of the Lord. We shall consider as our brothers 
in Christ Jesus, all persons who henceforth shall receive 
them as they merit, in evidence of which, we have given 
them this document, signed at Siphanto, the 7th of Sep- 
tember. The signatures of three-and-fifty persons are 
appended. 

After reciprocal adieus, we descended to our bark, and 
departed from the island in the direction of Serfante. 
The circuit of this island is perhaps a dozen leagues ; the 
soil of it is dry, mountainous and rocky : the aspect of 
this place, as it rose upon our view, was quite as dismal, 
disagreeable and sad as the island of Siphanto, which 
we left behind, w T as cheering and delightful. The hus- 
bandman reaps no corn, nor ever gathers the " grape 
sectarian" in this barren island : you scarcely see a tree 
in it ; but arid though it be, cattle are abundant, which 
browse upon the weeds and shrubs which escape to 



276 



GREEK MONASTERY. 



existence in the fissures of the rocks. Nevertheless, 
these animals are never meagre, and the fleeces of the 
sheep are beautiful and fine. Very fine saffron is found 
at Serfo ; you see at certain seasons of the year prodigious 
multitudes of large red partridges, resembling those of 
the neighbouring isles, where gray are seldom seen. 
The isle contains some mines of iron, as well as one 
of loadstone. 

The people of Serfantd principally inhabit an exten- 
sive village, standing upon the summit of a steep moun- 
tain, at nearly a league from the sea, and another village 
of inferior size, at three miles distance from the former ; 
together they contain eight hundred people. The inha- 
bitants are poor and rude, the dialect they speak is ex- 
ceedingly corrupt, and there is something in their accent 
irresistibly ludicrous. The isle is spiritualy governed 
by the Bishop of Siphanto's vicar, his jurisdiction extends 
over five or six parishes, which are equally poor and 
badly kept. A monastery of St. Michael, inhabited by 
a hundred Caloyers, stands at two leagues distance from 
the town ; we only found the abbot in the house on our 
visit to the monastery ; the religious were all occupied 
without, some were questing in the isles in the vicinity, 
some were tending cattle, and others at labour. We 
may remark as we pass on, that though all Greek monks 
are called Caloyers by the literary men of France, in 
Greece they make a difference, where the brethren alone 
are called by this name ; those who are Priests are Jer- 
monaches, but to accommodate myself to the habitude 
of France, I shall term the monastics indifferently, 
Galoyers. As soon as we arrived at Serfo*, we looked 

* Serfo or Serfante. 



THERMIA. 



277 



about for some nook to reside in ; we discovered an 
humble and obscure abode, which had no opening but 
the door, no furniture or bedding but a mat. We after- 
wards visited the vicar. 

The epitropes or primates and the Turkish TTaiwode, 
paid us much attention ; some medicines administered 
appropriately, completely won the Waiwode's heart, and 
he volunteered to aid us to the best of his authority, to 
exercise our functions. 

We publicly addressed the people twice a day, during 
the period that we spent at Serfo. The pulpit we em- 
ployed was the summit of a cabin, from the elevation of 
which we saw ourselves surrounded by multitudes of 
people, who heard our addresses with profound attention, 
and with all the symptoms of souls affected by eternal 
truths. 'Twas requisite to render matters palpable, to 
propose the questions we discussed in the simplest guise, 
for they are less acute in Serfo than in Sifanto. The 
remainder of the day was spent in familiar instructions 
in private houses, which we visited successively, in con- 
soling the sick and administering remedies, and in assem- 
bling the children, and catechising them. All the inha- 
bitants of the isle derived profit from our mission, and 
received the sacraments of penance, and the eucharist, 
with sentiments of piety, that edified us highly. We 
finally forsook Serfante with such consolation of the 
spirit as could not be expressed, while the people were 
invocating blessings on our head, and returning thanks 
to God a thousand times for having prompted us to visit 
them, amid their rugged hills. 

We went to Tliermia from Serfo, islands twelve 
leagues from one another ; the former has derived its 



278 



RUINED CASTLE. 



appellative from the Thermes, or the baths of warm 
water, which made it celebrated once. The circumference 
of Thermia is fifteen leagues ; though the soil is pretty 
fertile, the productions are but poor ; barley and wheat 
are the only produce of the land, the wine is wretched 
and trees are rare. There is a large village in the 
middle of the isle, and at two leagues distance a consi- 
derable hamlet ; the population is about four thousand. 
The relics of a ruined castle appear upon an eminence, 
which ascends between the north and the setting 
sun ; there are ruined houses round it, as well as the 
remnants of two Latin churches ; towards the south you 
see the ruins of an ancient town, which in more fortunate 
times, must have been equally spacious and well built. 
Thermia depends upon the Bishopric of Zia, a neigh- 
bouring isle, the Bishop's residence. In the town there 
are thirteen parishes and five monasteries of Grecian 
monks, but, except one, there's not in all the isle a Latin 
church, it is attended by a vicar of the bishop of Tino, 
a native of Venice. Ten or twelve families observe the 
Latin rite. On arriving in the island, we visited the prin- 
cipal ecclesiastic, a man of much intelligence, whom 
personal merit and extensive wealth, elevate above the 
other Priests of Greece ; the most eminent persons in 
the island at that time in his house, witnessed the obliging 
reception which he gave us, and the marks of amity with 
which we were distinguished. We immediately com- 
menced our mission : diurnally as usual, we preached in 
the church to multitudes of people, who collected from 
all quarters to hear the novel preachers. An Abbe much 
respected in the isle, by whom a bishopric had been re- 
signed, the better to attend to Ins salvation, was the 



THE CONFESSOR. 



279 



most coustant of our auditors ; wherever we proceeded 
this virtuous prelate followed us. He also had the zeal 
to preach, and never omitted in his declamations to eu- 
logize our ministry and doctrine. After many days 5 in- 
struction, public and particular, the confessions were so 
many, that our numbers did not suffice : the regulars 
and seculars of every rank and of every age, came in a 
crowd to the tribunal of penance, issuing from which 
they publicly asserted that they counted all their previous 
confessions for nothing, and that the only confession that 
gave quiet to their conscience, was that they had just 
made. The rumour of these confessions caused the an- 
cient confessor of the country, an aged monk, to descend 
from the recesses of his monastery, in the expectation of 
obtaining contributions, through the medium of our 
toils. The confessors have the custom in the Grecian 
isles, of giving absolution for a sum agreed upon between 
the sinner and themselves. The old man with his bell 
accordingly appeared, but he sounded it to very little 
purpose, and advertised the people of his coming to no 
effect, for he returned to his monastery with empty 
pockets. There was a certain man amongst the patients 
whom we visited, to whom we went less to communicate 
instruction, than to be edified ourselves : when we 
offered him some cures for the solace of his evils, alas ! 
my fathers, he replied, looking at us with an ah' full of 
sweetness and respect, why take from me the material 
of my merit ? true, I am unworthy to participate the 
grace which I experience, through the medium of these 
sufferings, but since it has seemed good to his infinite 
benignity to visit me with these afflictions, far be it from 
me to seek a solace for these pangs ; attend to my spiri- 



280 



THE PREACHING. 



tual interests, I pray you, and pass by my body. We 
must confess, my Rev. Father, that these words were 
full of such a lively faith, as made us profoundly adore 
the secrets of the providence of God, who knows how 
to select such chosen spirits from places that seem of all 
others the least likely to produce them. Having closed 
our mission in the town of Thermia, we proceeded to 
the village which they call Silaka ; it stands upon two 
petty elevations confronting one another, and which a 
torrent separates ; Father Luchon preached on one 
declivity, whilst I ascended, as at Serfo, to the summit of 
a house, from whence I addressed a numerous assembly. 
Their sighs, their silence, and the blessings which they 
showered on us, filled my soul with secret consolation. 
It was not long before we gathered the first fruits of 
penance ; they came to confession in such multitudes that 
it was with difficulty we could catch some moments of re- 
pose ; " woe is me, my Father," said these worthy people, 
with a certain naivete that delighted us : " how often have 
we said to God, Lord send us hither some one who will 
teach us to honour and revere you ; ye are they whom God 
has sent, and now do we perceive that he listened to our 
prayers. They burst into tears while they were uttering 
these words ; others spoke in a figurative style : " My Fa- 
thers you are vases which are sealed, into which whatsoever 
one may put cannot possibly exhale from them. To you we 
can expose our conscience without apprehension, because 
we are certain that our secrets sink into an abyss so 
profound, that they never can emerge from it ; you seek 
no other object than our amendment, while others there 
be, who seek nothing but our money." They were not 
altogether wrong; the schismatics of the country are 



MOUNTAINS. 



281 



indiscreet confessors ; and the excess of their exactions 
was almost inconceivable : they ask forty or fifty crowns 
for absolving certain sins. We passed but eight days in 
this village, after which we returned to the town, in or- 
der to make thence our way to Andros. If we had de- 
layed our departure, we should have been unable to 
proceed, for we were followed by a countless crowd of 
people to our bark. Previously to entering, we delivered 
them a summary of all we recommmended during the period 
of the mission, and we left them certain memorials 
capable of remindingthem of our instructions. It was ne- 
cessary to separate at length, which was not without tears 
on both sides. The isle of Andros is twenty leagues from 
Thermia. The ' mountains there are high, and the 
valleys most agreeable. Here and there, among thes£ 
vallies, rural dwellings are disseminated, and the 
streams that glitter through them make an everlasting 
green. The orange tree, the lemon, the cedar, and 
the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the mulberry, at- 
tain a surprising oi^o ^ xWiwi Its oils are most ex- 
cellent, and grass, legumes and corn are exceedingly 
abundant. In that part of the island which looks tow- 
ards Capadoro, or the promontory of Negrepont, lies 
the harbour of Gavrio, which might easily contain a con- 
siderable fleet. In fact, the fleet of Venice wintered 
during the last war in the harbour of Gavrio. The pre- 
cincts of the port are exceedingly desert, and considering 
its size, the isle is scarcely peopled, for they reckon but 
5000 souls. The town, or as they term it, the city of 
Andros, may contain about a hundred houses, built upon 
a tongue, or promontory, of earth. Two little bays, 
which are far from being secure, are formed by the sides 



282 



ISLES OF GREECE. 



of this promontory. At the termination of this tongue 
of land, remains of a dilapidated castle, built in the 
fashion of ancient fortresses, tower above the deep. 
Within the town itself, there is a very handsome castle, 
which wants nothing but the roof : the windows are 
adorned with finely-chiseled marble. The arms and the 
cyphers of the Signores Summaripa, to whom this isle 
belonged, but who have established themselves at Naxos 
since the Turkmen took the island, are dispersed over 
the walls. At four leagues from the city, in travelling 
towards the south, you meet Apano castro, another ha- 
bitation. Every ancient building, on an elevated site, 
is called Apano castro, throughout the Grecian islands. 

From insufficient population, a century ago, they in- 
troduced Albanian families to cultivate the soil : they 
were placed in separate villages, three leagues from one 
another. Arna is the one, and the other is Molakos. 

The chief persons of the isle are descended from Athe- 
nians, and possess the richest districts, which makes the 
people v«ry poor. Tlx^j rcoido ^ItLuut the town, Miivl 

they never come within it unless called by public busi- 
ness, or the interests of their trade. Five-and-twenty 
years ago, a corsair of Ciotat, sought to sack the little 
city. The little castles of the country have been built 
since that event, which place the people in security from 
insults of the species. In visiting the tenants of these 
towers which are far asunder, the missionaries' labours 
are by no means inconsiderable. Andros has a bishop, 
whose abode is in the town. Besides many little churches 
which are scattered through the isle, there are two ex- 
tensive monasteries of Caloyers in Andros. One of 
these, named Agra, is at two leagues from Gavrio. The 



ISLES OF GREECE. 



283 



handsome church of Agra is devoted to our lady. The 
second, Panachrando, is at one league from the city. 
There is a Latin bishop also, who has latterly been ab- 
sent, whose diocese is managed by a vicar in his absence. 

The families belonging to the ritual of Rome were 
at one time 800 ; the greater part of whom were extin- 
guished by a plague. The others, to avoid the persecu- 
tions of the Greeks, were perverted by these tyrants, or 
forsook their native isle. The Latin ritual reckons but 
one family as followers : however, the family is numer- 
ous, and the ritual is accredited by the firmness displayed 
by the noble who maintains it, and by the qualities which 
render him the first man in the isle. The Jesuits of Scio 
had a mansion in the town, with a little church, devoted 
to Cuoi'g-c, fWm tttIiIoK tlxey were expelled. Though 
born subjects of the Grand Signior, these fathers often 
had to suffer the most cruel persecutions. The R.Ii.P.P. 
Capucines had an hospital, which they have quitted and 
resumed repeatedly. One of these religious has returned 
hither lately. It had long been an object which the 
Androites desired, to see onr establishment amongst 
them ; but our scantiness of workmen and our poverty, 
precluded the idea. Our frequent expeditions are a sub- 
stitute for this ; they are burdensome to no one, and 
productive of great benefit. 

According to our custom, on arriving at Andros, we 
proceeded to present our respects to the prelate. Our re- 
ception was obliging, and we were afterwards aided by 
this gentlemen's authority in the functions of our ministry. 
In the beginning of Advent, with the Greeks a time of 



284 



THE VISION. 



fast, we began our exhortations in the two principal 
churches. The bishop was amongst the most constant of 
our auditors. To reform the principal disorders and 
most prevalent abuses being our paramount design, they 
became the subject of our sermons, and of the particu- 
lar instructions we gave in every house. Such force was 
given to our words by heaven, that the manners of the 
people immediately changed. Sincere reconciliations, 
and immediate restitutions, repudiation of bad women, 
and reception of the sacraments, were proofs of con- 
version which could not be denied. A compliment was 
paid us by a chief man of the isle. " I saw you in a 
dream, three weeks before your coming, my fathers," 
he said one day as he saluted us ; " an interior voice ad- 
dressed mo as the vision passed before me,** lie oontlnuorl. 
" Behold whom I have sent for the purpose of converting 
you ; if you lose this opportunity you are lost for ever !" 

Whether this was mere imagination, or the providence 
of God, he made a general confession ; and a thousand 
times we thanked the God of mercies, who omits no 
means whatever to conduct men to himself. This 
mission terminated, we departed for Arna, a town of the 
Albanians, at which when we arrived we were ex- 
ceedingly fatigued, for we climbed a mountain on our 
way, whose acclivity was three leagues high, while 
carrying our consecrated ornaments and remedies, and 
down the other side it was two leagues more by very 
rugged pathways, encumbered and obstructed by brambles 
and rocks. We ultimately entered Arna, the inhabitants 
of which, are poor and rustic with no approximation 
to barbarity, however. The succeeding day, the sabbath, 
we proceeded to the churches, where multitudes were 



GEEEK CONFESSION. 



235 



gathered. In the first place we assured them that the 
motive of our visit was their everlasting Avelfare ; we 
should cause them no expense ; and for administering the 
sacraments, for instructions in religion, and application 
of our remedies, the solitary guerdon we requested was 
their prayers. 

We ultimately won their confidence ; in consequence 
every house in the vicinity was opened to us, and 
they heard our exhortations with astonishing avidity. 
Four days passed over us in this way ; on the vigil of the 
fifth we were burdened with confessions, which were 
general confessions for the greater part. While tears 
suffused their eye -balls, these worthy men exclaimed, 
" Alas, we begin now at last to learn to live as christians 
should do." Nothing moved us more than to see them 
in the middle of December, coming from the bottom 
of their mountains, across frightful ravines, to hear the 
word of God, to confess their offences, and propose their 
doubts. The utter destitution in which these poor people 
are left by their ecclesiastical superiors, is deserving our 
compassion. Once a year alone, that is on holy 
Thursday, some monks, from the two monasteries 
established in the isle, come amongst the people, for the 
purpose of confessing them. The very form of ab- 
solution is unknown to many of these monks. They 
have a certain routine which they follow in qualifying 
weighty sins. The next proceeding of the monk is to ask 
a sum of money. When the money is reckoned down, 
the confession is concluded. They sometimes fail to take 
the trouble of going into details ; they put a question to 
the penitent that serves instead, contenting themselves 
with asking if things have not gone on as they did the 



286 



A TEMPLE IN RUINS. 



year preceding, to which the penitent says " yes/' and 
presents the sum of money, on which the ceremony ends 
and another is admitted. We have endeavoured to 
remedy so crying an abuse, and many similar abuses 
which it would be tedious to detail. Three weeks being 
concluded of our missionary exercises, when upon the 
point of returning to the town, we gave one of our Greek 
catechisms to the epitrop of the valley, who promised us 
to read it every Sunday during mass. This will be the 
means of maintaining pious sentiments amongst the 
people we have taught. As soon as we returned to the 
town, we directed all our views towards Apano Castro, 
where we knew that spiritual necessities were pressing. 
Apano Castro is a valley that is surrounded with 
acclivities, which are spread over with hamlets. On 
these elevated slopes from fifteen to twenty towers of the 
chief men of the isle have been erected. What is more 
singular than this is, that the remnants of a church and of 
a very ancient temple are seen mouldering in this place, 
the cupola of which latter subsists and appears to be 
in good taste. A finely- polished marble, black and white 
in colour, representing roses and laboured with much 
taste, constitutes the pavement of the church. The 
people of the country, in digging up the ruins, most 
completely in decay, assert that an image of our lady was 
discovered, which has been greatly venerated in the 
country ever since. The hearts of the people of Apano 
Castro were well prepared, we found, and the evangelic 
seed was not scattered there in vain. Every person 
in the valley put his conscience in good order, and 
promised to pursue the regulation which we gave for the 
direction of their lives. The bishop having learned that 



GREEK GIRL, 



287 



we had formed an abridgment of the Articles of Faith, 
and obligations of a Christian, requested the production 
that he might cause it to be read to the parishioners 
every Sunday after mass throughout his diocess. The 
chief persons of the isle designated Archos were so 
affected by the sermon that we preached on their 
injustice, that they took immediate measures to repair 
the ill inflicted on the people by their violent exactions. 
Many came to confession at the head of all their clan. 
The paramount person has a daughter of eighteen years 
of age, who wants none of all those qualities that make a 
lady amiable. This virtuous virgin protests that she 
desires no other spouse but her Redeemer. She already 
has refused the richest suitors in the isle. Her father is 
not willing to coerce her inclinations, but his reluctancy 
to put her in a nunnery with ladies of her rite, is quite 
equivalent to that aversion. He has been often heard to 
say that the illustrious nuns of France should found 
a nunnery at Naxos : he interrogates us often as to this 
intended nunnery, declaring his intention of giving them 
his daughter, together with her dowry, if she choose to 
take the veil. 

The above describes a portion of the progress of our 
mission. ? Tis by God's especial blessing that we have 
been thus successful in obtaining the affections of these 
people ; for seculars and regulars, the Greeks are 
educated in a violent aversion for the Latins and their 
discipline. We were received universally with kindness, 
when we came, and we have been bitterly regretted when 
leaving the island. What good might not be done in 
these great countries were we reinforced with workmen ! 
Reflect my Rev. Father, that the mission of Con- 
stantinople, at the lowest calculation, is a hundred 



288 



GREEK GIRL. 



thousand souls ; that Smyrna has as many ; Naxia, 
ten thousand ; and Santorin more than eight, without 
speaking of the mission which we have now delineated 
and in which we had to preach to upwards of 12,000. 
I implore with all my soul the sacred patrons of Greece, 
who, from the summit of the skies, see the frightful 
destitution of countries formerly so fervent and so catho- 
lic, to intercede with Christ that he touch the hearts of 
those who have the salvation of such myriads in their 
hands, and who can contribute to effect that salvation by 
their charity, by not suffering a harvest so extensive to 
to perish utterly for the want of labourers to reap it. 

I am with respect, &c. &c. 

Francis James Xavier Portier. 



A NT I LI BAN US. 



289 



EXTRACTS 

From the letter of a Missionary at Damascus, to the 
Rev. Procurator of the Missions of the Levant : — - 

My Rev. Father, 

I was on the point of leaving Sidon and departing for 
Damascus, in pursuance of the will of my superiors, 
when they changed my destination. I was desired to take 
a different route and to prepare to spend some months 
in the mountains, which are known by the name of Anti 
Libanus. As the patriarch of the Maronites was speedily 
to publish the Jubilee throughout his extensive patriarchate, 
it was thought that I might render some assistance to our 
Missionaries who were about to be extraordinarily occu- 
pied. Though Damascus as a residence, has been highly 
eulogised, I confess to you, my father, that I conceived a 
greater liking for the mountains. In the mountains we 
may say with verity, that we serve God for himself and 
with perfect disinterestedness ; no portion of our life is 
dedicated to effeminacy, and self-love cannot be flattered 
by the functions which we exercise. I was delighted to 
commence my career in such a place, and by means of a 
Mission of such difficulty to consecrate the first fruits of 
my apostleship. To prepare me, I was sent to our dwell- 
ing at Antoura. From the time that I arrived I devoted all 
my energy to the study of the Arabic ; I pursued it with 
avidity, and after a little time was sufficiently acquainted 
with it to render some assistance ; nevertheless, I was 
yet very awkward in a foreign tongue, of which I ignored 
the delicacies. I imagined that I should have nothing 

o 



290 



THE CATECH1ST. 



else to do in these mountains but to practise patience^ 
but I learned by my personal experience the advantage of 
blindly abandoning yourself to the guidance of providence, 
and that if we have a little good-will we may always find 
something useful to perform. The presence of zeal sup- 
plies the absence of all other qualities. My employments 
were proportioned to my talents ; whilst our priests were 
making, with incredible fatigue, evangelical excursions in 
every direction, to induce the faithful to take advantage 
of the grace enunciated. I was entrusted with the task of 
teaching the truths of our religion to the children. A 
few ignorant and clownish children was the portion of the 
flock which they confided to my care. This is not, I must 
confess, the most illustrious office in the ministry, but 
perhaps it is of all others the most essential. Such was the 
opinion of Ignatius and of Francis Xavier, our fathers 
and our masters ; and I fear not to assert, that, if this 
were more attended to, certain Missions would not make 
such report, it is true, but they would certainly produce 
more fruit ; let that be as it may, at least I had some 
participation in the good that was effected, and I was 
perfectly content. I commenced by prescribing to myself 
in my instructions a precise and facile method, to which 
God gave the increase. I traversed the different villages ; 
I assembled all the children, I found little intelligence 
but much docility. I reckoned upon having under my 
direction children merely, but fathers and mothers who 
were destitute of every spiritual succour were little more 
enlightened than their infants, requiring catechists as 
much as preachers. By this means my functions were 
encreased and my labour augmented, and if I became not 
the universal man, I became at least the necessary one ; 



SILK WORMS. 291 

but, thanks be to God, I was enabled by his grace to 
encounter these difficulties, in which my success surpassed 
my hopes ; I proceeded from the villages to the cabins, 
where my labours recommenced. This distinction between 
villages and cabins will probably cause you some surprise, 
I shall solve the mystery : it was now the season when 
they manufacture silk, when this season returns the 
mountaineers for the most part forsake their habitations 
and retire to the campaign, where, amid gardens of white 
mulberries, destined solely for the sustenance of silk- 
worms, they prepare to pass the season. They procure 
branches of trees like the Jews of the tabernacles, with 
which in the middle of these gardens they construct them 
summer houses, perhaps twenty paces long, and from six 
to seven wide ; here they rear a multitude of silk-worms 
which they deposit on a species of hurdles, constituting 
five or six stages, one above the other like the shelves of 
a cupboard ; all the cabin is occupied by these compart- 
ments except that at the right and the left there are two 
pathways to carry food to the worms, an operation per- 
formed twice a day, at six in the morning and six at eve. 
I was one day standing at the entrance of one of these 
cabins when the master to whom it appertained besought 
me to come in and bestow my benediction ; as I was not 
very familiar with the customs of the country, I felt some 
repugnance to the performance of this ceremony ; one of 
our fathers who happened to be with me at the time, 
whispered in my ear, on perceiving my embarrassment, 
that so great was the respect entertained for our Mission- 
aries by the Maronites, it would be considered as an evil 
augury if we did not visit them and bless their cabins in 
the season of the silk. This discourse decided me, and 

o 2 



292 



FAST OF THE WORMS. 



entering the cabin I complied with the request. I had 
visited repeatedly our manufactories in France, but an 
operative had never proposed anything like this. Pardon 
me, my father, I did not remember at the time the decla- 
ration of our Lord, that you may find more faith amongst 
foreigners, in some instances, than amongst the children 
of Israel. I examined this abode which was built with 
such rapidity, and discovered many marks of ingenuity; 
but the ereatures for whom it was erected arrested my 
regards, and rivetted my attention, I remarked that they 
were perfectly motionless, with their heads a little raised : 
I asked the person who presided the cause of this appear- 
ance, he informed me that this was the first fast of the 
worms, which now had continued for three days, that 
they had three additional fasts to perform, that the dura- 
tion of these latter fasts would be shorter than the first, 
that after the third they would attach themselves to bun- 
dles of thorns, and that upon these bundles they should 
spin their silks. He was a proficient in the business, I 
did not contradict him nor push my inquiries any further. 
Thus, the christians of the mountains during three months 
of the year direct their industry to cultivate an article 
which constitutes their greatest wealth. — This is in reality 
the period of their harvest ; it is a period when the Mis- 
sioners have great success ; as to the rest these Missions 
are extremely painful, and I learned a lesson from these 
essays of my zeal, which enabled me to appreciate the 
saying of a J esuit in France : that, invariably crosses are 
the portion of the apostleship in every country, and that 
difficulties await us in many other places besides Canada. 
These cabins are often very far from one another, they 
are sometimes situated upon rocks ; so steep as to be almost 



CHAINS. 



293 



inaccessible; would you believe it, my Rev. Father, the 
charity of Jesus Christ carries our Missionaries thither, 
zealous and undaunted ; they consider the most overwhelm- 
ing fatigues as trifles when the object is to establish the 
kingdom of the Lord on a solid basis, amongst so many 
people, whose souls have been confided by heaven to our 
hands. Alas, they never would have heard the accents of 
religion were it not for us, and surrounded by unfaithful 
nations as they are, perhaps they would have fallen into 
infidelity. We quitted them only when they forsook the 
plain to return to their mountains, and our toils only 
ended with their labours. Hardly had this Mission ended 
when my superiors destined me for another, and did me 
the honor to associate me with a confessor of our Lord : 
he was a fervent and fearless Missionary who having gone 
to console the christians in that forsaken church, had the 
happiness of suffering imprisonment and chains in Mesi- 
potamia : what an object for the emulation of my nascent 
zeal ! we were sent to discover a country which nobody 
had hitherto explored. In order to make our success 
more certain in this enterprise we had long cultivated the 
acquaintance of a christian who had much credit in the 
canton, it was he who was to serve us as an introductor, 
and he was to facilitate our intercourse with his com- 
patriots ; we found it difficult to bring him round, for he 
seemed very adverse to us at first ; he was reluctant to 
recognise Athanasius as the real patriarch, and he entered 
into the errors of Cyril the Schismatic with infatuated 
blindness. What an obstacle was this to vanquish, first 
it was necessary to winriiim over to catholicity before he 
could be won over to esteem the catholics, and this was 
not the work of men, 'twas the operation of the Deity, 



294 



THE COTTON PLANT. 



God, who holds in his hand the hearts of men, and can 
raise up children of Abraham from the stones if it please 
him, so completely changed the Schismatic, that he was 
prevailed on to renounce his errors, a recantation in which 
his family participated : returned to the bosom of the 
church ; as the most certain mark of his conversion he 
promised us a free access to the people of his nation ; he 
subsequently kept his word ; he accompanied us where- 
ever we proceeded, and invariably exhorted the people 
who surrounded him, at least to give us a favourable hear- 
ing. When the lucky moment marked by providence 
arrived, with what incredible transports of joy did we 
not proceed to labour in this novel vineyard ; we assumed 
the apparel of the people of the country in order to pass 
with less impediment ; it was in the beginning of last 
year that we departed for the mountains. Unlike America, 
cotton does not grow on trees in this country, they sow 
it every year, and from every grain of seed a stem of two 
feet high issues from the earth, with a quantity of branches 
which bear a kind of fruit no bigger than a nut; five or 
six little seeds with some cotton as white as snow is drawn 
from within the fruit when ripe ; the shell by which the 
cotton is surrounded is little thicker than the finest parch- 
ment. We ultimately arrived at the termination of our 
Mission, after various fatigues caused by the greatness 
of the journey as well as by the heat, which was excessive 
at this season. There are many villages of some extent 
at the basis of the lofty mountain, which the Arabs call 
Jabal Cheky that is, the mountain of the aged man ; as 
all the year the head of the mountain is covered with snow : 
you feel the allusion. As soon as we arrived we proceeded 
to the dwelling of the worthy christian upon whom we 



ORIENTAL HOSPITALITY. 



295 



much depended, we were not deceived, lie received us 
with demonstrations of joy, and an effusion of the feelings 
of the heart, which it is difficult to niagine. When we 
crossed his threshold it was nearly night ; he immediately 
perceived that we were the Missionaries whose approach 
he had expected, and he made ready to receive us at his 
door. He took our right hand on approaching us, and 
kissing it, respectfully placed it on his head as a token of 
subjection, he then addressed the priest by whom I was 
accompanied, in terms such as these : "My father, thou art 
welcome," he exclaimed ; " at the very time that thouwert 
coming I had thee in my heart, the blessing of heaven 
has descended, and together with thy friend enters ray 
dwelling in thy company ; I look upon this moment as 
the happiest of my life, since angels of the Lord do me 
the honor of a visit, and carry to our country affluence 
and peace. I thank the author of the universe for having 
procured my people such felicity — come in my father, 
come in to my dwelling where thou mayest command and 
must be obeyed." These compliments which appeared 
to be emphatical to us, are in the oriental style, and 
expressed in x\rabic, they have a beauty, nobleness and 
grace, which cannot be transfused into our language. My 
companion responded to the best of his ability, and libe- 
rally repaid politeness with politeness. As soon as the 
first civilities were done we were led into a large apart- 
ment where several persons were assembled, who, in 
imitation of the father of the family came and kissed our 
hand and placed it on their head; among these people 
we remarked a child of five years old who bent upon 
his knees as he approached us and craved our benediction : 
we looked upon him with surprise, so much wisdom in an 



296 



CHARMING CHILD. 



age so tender filled us with astonishment ; — at baptism they 
called him J ohn, and his surname was the Riches of the 
Deity, A custom prevails among the Arabs which pre- 
vents sons from inheriting the sirname of their father. A 
name is imposed upon a newly born child very different 
from that of the father of the family ; the latter is no 
longer known by his ancient appellative, they call him 
the father of such a person, as for instance, the father of 
the Riches of the Deity. 

The Riches of the Deity was one of those fine charac 
ters for whose formation grace and nature appear to have 
united, in order to bestow a blessing on a christian family. 
He joined to a gentle disposition and a great desire to 
learn, a happy physiognomy and a charming and fascina- 
ting ingenuousness. Concerning religion he put questions 
to us of such a nature as we should have admired in 
a person of maturer years. He conjured us to instruct 
him, with a species of importunity which is always 
delightful to a missionary who seeks to serve his master. 

I perceived that in this novel mission I was destined to 
resume my old vocation as a catechist : I raised my eyes 
to heaven for assistance in these functions ; you wil 
subsequently see that this was of much use to me 
There was in the room that we had entered, a carpet 
made of goat-skins : we sat ourselves upon it in the 
fashion of the country. My companion made enquiries 
as to the bias of the public mind in our regard : he would 
have reason to be delighted with his journey they assured 
him ; our instructions they asserted would be numerously 
attended. 

Supper was shortly after served ; a large rush-basket 
full of loaves of bread, which were as flat and tough as 



ORIENTAL MEAL, 



297 



parchment^ was brought into the apartment. No other 
bread is eaten in the country but this. It was distributed 
to us by the master of the mansion with the utmost 
liberality : the supply that we received would have served 
us several days. This is invariably the custom of the 
Arabs ; their object is to make you understand that 
plenty" prevails amongst them, and that the proprietors of 
this abundance are mun'ficent. You will see by and by 
that a little taste and cleanliness would be no injury, 
Every one assumed a seat beside the basket. Three 
cups of earthenware were served at the same time. The 
first was filled with rice, so indifferently seasoned that 
Arabs alone could eat it. The second was a species of wine, 
which, from the manner in which it was prepared, resembled 
honey. Many morsels of cheese were contained in the 
third, which were floating in a quantity 7 of oil. An epicure 
of Europe, between these three dishes, would have been 
embarassed to select. Neither napkins, spoons, nor forks, 
were at the board. The liquor that we got was as plen- 
teous as our viands. We had an immense vase of water 
for our drink, from which every one present took a gulp 
in turn. This was a repast to honour our reception. 
We never again got so sumptuous a meal during the 
continuance of the mission ; for the Arabs, who content 
themselves with little, seldom indulge in these extraordinary 
festivals. Compare this mode of living with that of the 
monastics of France, and however mortified they may be, 
you will discern a difference. Certain it is that after the 
repast a tobacco pipe was brought us, and that the father 
of the family, having lighted it, presented it to us. We 
begged him to excuse us as civilly as possible, insinuating 
that it was a ceremony contrary to the customs of our 



298 



THE ARABIC. 



country. He seemed satisfied with our excuses and he 
accepted them. He made a thousand enquiries concern- 
ing France, of which he had heard many marvels. By 
and by a crowd of christians entered, to testify their joy 
at our arrival ; they were all either Surians or Greeks. 
Their demonstrations of affection delighted us the more 
as we had anticipated an indifferent reception on their 
part, on account of the bad impressions made upon their 
minds by certain schismatical religious, who visit them 
from time to time, less to instruct them in religion than to 
make them inimical to the missionaries ; but these hostile 
demonstrations of impiety and schism were rendered 
harmless, and were even made advantageous to our 
progress by heaven. The rumour of our arrival having 
speedily diffused itself, all the village came to visit us with 
confidence. As there was no church in the hamlet, we 
were obliged to arrange an altar in a hall. The people of 
the town assembled here. The mission was commenced 
by my companion by so pathetic and so affecting a 
discourse, that his auditors were generally dissolved in 
tears. A beginning such as this was full of promise. 
The following is the order of our exercises. Mass 
succeeded morning prayer, and the former was succeeded 
by a sermon. Some worthy people, who were anxious 
to ascertain the way to heaven, separated when the 
sermon finished. Some applied to me, and some to my 
companion, who gave them such familiar instructions as 
suited the occassion. As I scarcely knew the Arabic, 
I expressed myself indifferently, yet I was attended to. 
My auditors' simplicity gave me great delight. Some of 
the people more advanced in years, as soon as they had ac- 
quired the Pater and the Credo, besought me to permit them 



THE RICHES OP THE DEITY. 



299 



to repeat these prayers, that they might exhibit their 
proficiency to their admiring neighbours ; and shortly 
after, those who were younger imitated them. All the 
morning was consumed in these sacred exercises. Whilst 
my companion, after dinner, went to visit the unhealthy, 
collecting my pygmean congregation, I commenced 
the catechism. The Riches of the Deity, to whom I had 
given particular instructions, played the part of an Apostle. 
He repaired to the places in which he had been accustomed 
to play. He addressed his comrades : " During the 
mission, play is prohibited," he exclaimed ; " it is to give 
offence to God to take amusement till the fathers have 
departed." The words of the child influenced his com- 
panions ; they unanimously followed him. At the head of 
his troop he entered the chapel with his eyes upon the 
earth, with his little hands united : " Father" said he to me, 
u teach us to know, to love, to serve and to pray to the 
God whom you inform us of." His example inspired all 
his followers, with modesty, with attention, with docility, 
insomuch that for a moment I imagined myself not the 
centre of a circle of frivolous children, but in one of 
pigmy sages ; and the attention and respect of these little 
innocents often excited me to tears. Only conceive with 
what affection, zeal, and ardour I gave myself to my 
employments. A sermon succeeded to this " christian 
doctrine," and on the dissolution of the crowd, and when 
every one retired, they overwhelmed us with benedictions. 
I deceived myself in saying that every one retired, for 
several remained, by whom we were detained till night 
was far advanced, and who could not be exhausted while 
hearing the word of God. So fatigued were we, we 
scarce had power to read our Breviary ; nay, we scarce had 



300 



THE SCHEIK. 



leisure, recumbent on the ground, to snatch some moments 
of repose. Days so full of labour passed us with celerity. 
In spite of the abundant benedictions vouchsafed to this 
mission from the skies, our work was left unfinished ; more 
pressing wants required our presence elsewhere. In our 
own despite we were obliged to separate ourselves from the 
cherished flock, but we despair not of one day or other 
being able to return to crown our works, to finish the 
edifice. I shall say nothing of the grief with which they 
honoured us, of the tears with which their farewell was 
accompanied. These are consolations which God ad- 
ministers to missioners, not so much to compensate their 
toils as to animate their zeal and to sustain that animation. 

Having returned to Damascus, we did not long remain 
there, and the obedience which had impelled us thither, 
soon dispatched us from the city, to pay a visit to some 
Christian families who had been long in want of mis- 
sionaries. In this village are the famous sources of the 
Damascus — from one of these a jet of water issues so 
abundantly, that an absolute river seems emerging from 
the hollow of the rock. The people of this village are 
Turks with few exceptions, but less hostile to the Chris- 
tians, and having more humanity than their brethren of 
Damascus ; our own experience gives a proof of this. We 
proceeded to pay a visit to the chief of the village, he is 
esteemed one of the best heads in the country, and one 
who understands his law most intimately ; he received us 
favourably, he was so civil as to say that he had the 
utmost respect for persons, such as we were, and that 
nothing was more strongly recommended by their prophet, 
than to treat us with humanity ; that as to the rest he took 
us under his protection, and that we were perfectly at 



THE DYING SURIAN. 



301 



liberty to visit any place we pleased without apprehending 
insult from any individual in his district. This address 
surprised us ; his assertion concerning his prophet was 
enigmatical to us; by and by I shall give you the solution. 
We thanked him for his bounty, and we made a pro- 
fitable use of his permission in ministering to the Christians 
and visiting the Turks who received us willingly, and 
seemed to hear our words with pleasure ; two of them 
went so far as to make an avowal that the true religion 
was the Christian faith. This excursion afforded us a 
lasting subject of consolation ; it palpably evinces the 
mercy that a God infinitely benevolent, and who ordains 
all thing-s for the bliss of his elect, sometimes bestows on 
some predestinated spirits. 

A Surian more than eighty years of age, had be^ri 
deprived of the use of his limbs for eighteen years, and 
blind for more than ten. He had a lively faith, and, 
though long extended on that bed of sorrow, he had sup- 
ported his afflictions with admirable patience. Though 
his infirmities and age convinced him that the gates of 
death were near, he flattered himself and expressed the 
feeling to his acquaintances, that until he had seen some 
of the anointed of the Lord, heaven would not call him. 
A confidence so firm could originate alone in some 
presentiment which had been imprinted on his spirit by the 
Holy Ghost. Let that be as it may, as soon as he knew 
we were arrived, " The promises of heaven are accom- 
plished," he exclaimed, " you will now permit your servant 
to depart in peace, 0 Lord." He sent some persons from 
his house to implore us to repair to him as he was not able 
to come himself to seek us ; the feelings he expressed, 
and the language he made use of were really worthy a 



302 



THE DYING CHRIST I AX. 



christian soul. Religon, my Rev. Father has its heroes 
everywhere, " My Father," he said to the missionary my 
companion, tfi you are as it were assisting angels who 
diffuse instruction, light and benediction, whithersoever 
you proceed : for many revolving years have I yearned to 
behold you, and I expected always to receive this con- 
solation before the termination of my days. I feel con- 
vinced at present that heaven itself engraved this 
expectation on my heart, my wishes are accomplished, in 
dying now I have nothing to regret, you arrive at the 
propitious moment to receive my dying sighs and the last 
confessions of my weakness — animate me in my combats 
— cause our Saviour's blood to flow upon my soul — apply 
his merits to my wants — feed me with his flesh and put 
the crown on my felicity — put the seal on my election by 
the sacraments of our religion. I feel my end approach, 
what happiness it must be for a sinner like myself to 
expire within your arms, and in thus expiring to be able 
to repose my conscience in your hands, and my soul 
in those of Christ. Make haste to purify my soul by the 
sacrament of penance, and assist me to bless the infinite 
mercies of our God. v 

At these affecting words his sons and grandsons who 
were round his bed burst into tears, and mine were 
irrepressible ; religion sometimes makes impressions on 
us which cannot be controlled. The missionary many 
times embraced the dying man, and exhorted him to profit 
by this ultimate assistance which was thus offered him by 
heaven, by consummating the work of his salvation. We 
left them together, the man made a general confession 
which was broken frequently by sobs and tears ; the 
family re-entered, and, prostrating themselves upon the 



DEATH OF THE CHRISTIAN. 



303 



floor, they received the benediction of the patriarch to 
whom the communion was administered, whose fervour 
and whose piety re -douWed when the Eucharist appeared. 
A crucifix was given him which he amorously kissed, and 
with his lips glued to the figure of his master he sweetly 
expired, tranquilly embracing the image of our Saviour, 
Oh what a death was this, my father, and so stricken was 
I with it that I could not restrain myself from saying to 
the disconsolate family. "My children, religion deceives 
us or your father is a Saint/' I observed to them that 
infidelity and schism never present spectacles like this : a 
thousand times they thanked us. We gave the other 
christian families the necessary attendance. This singular 
circumstance signalized our course ; we could not tire 
admiring it, and on our way returning, it was the subject 
matter of all our conversation. My companion confessed 
that he had never experienced a joy so sweet and so pure 
in all his life before, and that he had been well rewarded 
by that single moment for all his past fatigues ; judging 
from what was passing in my bosom at the moment I 
could credit this avowal. An inhabitant of the hamlet 
who was travelling with us, and like us was ^oing to 

° CO 

Damascus, reminded me that I had been curious to know 
why christian religious had been so strongly recommended 
by Mahomet to his followers. If you wish, he added, to 
ascertain the reason, and to sound the heart of this 
mystery, I shall introduce you to an inhabitant of the city 
to which we are proceeding, who is capable of informing 
you as he is learned in the law and intimately acquainted 
with the history of the country, and who will communicate 
any intelligence you may require with pleasure. He 
named the learned doctor and deeming his advice judi- 



304 



ARABIC MANUSCRIPT. 



cious, I did not consider it my duty to neglect it. I was 
pleased to have an opportunity of obtaining intelligence 
upon a point upon which opinions so much differed. 
While I was yet in France and preparing for these 
missions, I had attentively perused all that the learned 
have written on the subject of Mahomet and of the Koran. 
I bad read the article of Bayle upon this prophet. I 
wished to make myself master of the subject, and since 
my return my paramount desire has been to fathom the 
affair. The discoveries I made in my researches have 
been these : — 

Having visited the man whom the traveller had indica- 
ted, I found him to be a christian, and as a consequence, 
I questioned him with more facility, and to make him 
acquainted with the matter in debate, without further 
preliminaries, I addressed him in the following words : Is 
it true that the prophet of the Mussulmans instructed his 
disciples to receive christian religious with civility. Per- 
fectly true, he replied. But Frenchmen, I responded, 
and those whose erudition is the most profound, maintain 
the deepest silence upon this point ; a syllable is not to be 
discovered on the subject in their writings. That may be, 
said he, but it is not the less true upon that account, and 
notwithstanding all their science, we as orientals are 
better to be believed than they, having sources of infor- 
mation which are inaccessible to them. At the same 
time unrolling his papers, he discovered an ancient manu- 
script. It was a history of Mahomet, in the Arabic, 
detailing his adventures at full length. " You know our 
language," said he to me, "read, this will terminate our 
differences and decide the question between the French 
and us." I perused this manuscript or rather I devoured 



CURIOUS HISTORY. 



305 



it, and as I was unsatisfied with one perusal, I begged him 
to suffer rne to keep it for a day or two — he willingly 
complied. ^iThat follows is a faithful extract, if I found 
any thing of a different description I could not obtain your 
forgiveness for reporting it, besides it would be foreign to 
my subject ; I leave that to those sorts of authors who in 
order to flatter the fashion of the day interlard their works 
with infinite obscenities, and who neither respect manners 
nor religion. According to this manuscript Mahoniet was 
a native of Mecca. The birth of Mahomet was obscure. 
As the man had lofty and elevated sentiments, he sought a 
deliverance from misery and the realisation of a princely 
fortune. As even Mahoment was no prophet in his own 
country, he became a stranger in a foreign clime. An 
opportunity for this was offered by a famine which afflicted 
his father land ; he joined a caravan of his compatriots 
which was going to seek corn in the Hauran, an article 
not to be found any where else. The Hauran is at two 
days' journey from Damascus, at the southern side. It is a 
district of which, the soil is very fertile: in seasons the 
most unpropitious, crops are abundant in the Hauran, and 
its grain is considered as the best in Syria. There abode in 
this country at that time, a religious man, whose name 
was Sergius : severe and regular, but obstinately Arian, 
Sergius was one of the most ardent partisans of the 
opinions of that heresiarch. Amongst those who had 
come with the caravan to Mecca, Sergius perceived the 
young Mahoniet, he was stricken with his countenance, 
he remarked him with interest, he was a young man. 

9 JO f 

elegantly made : the noble and distinguished demeanour 
of the youthful prophet made an immediate impression 
upon Sergius, he was delighted with his conversation, 



306 



CURIOUS H [STORY. 



he perceived that his mind was remarkably vivacious, and 
with wise prescience he deemed him capable of something 
great ; he attached him to himself, and moreover, pro- 
posed retaining him for several years. Though this pro- 
position had displeased Mahomet, the young Arab would 
still have received it out of sheer necessity. He became 
the disciple, not the servant, of the Surian. Pliant and 
imitative by nature, to his master his disposition appeared 
docile, he attended to his lessons and he appreciated them ; 
born as he was in the bosom of idolatry he knew its incon- 
sistency and he hastened to renounce that gross and super- 
stitious creed. But if Mahomet thus escaped one precipice 
'twas only to descend into another: in turning christian 
he unhappily became a heretic, denying the divinity of the 
word "that was made flesh.'' The Arians assert that 
our Saviour was a perfect creature, but simply a creature, 
notwithstanding. Hence the sublime notions of our Saviour 
cherished by the Mussulmans ; they regard him as a 
prophet and as a very great prophet, not as a deity, 
however ; I quote this observation from the manuscript. 

Acquainted with the verities of Christianity, Mahomet 
conceived the idea of communicating his acquisitions to 
his country, and of thus withdrawing his brethren from 
the abyss of idolatry. Full of the project upon which he 
ruminated, he returned to Mecca with a caravan : as soon 
as he arrived he began his dogmatising, and found but little 
trouble in destroying the plurality of Gods. In lieu of 
the law that he abolished another law was to be substituted ; 
he acquired confidence from his successes, it became his 
ambition to become a legislator. He naturally selected 
the religion of the christians ; he was a professor of the 
faith, and the tincture he had got of it was more than 



THE PROPHET. 



307 



superficial > but so well was it diffused amongst mankind 
that he never would be taken for the author of it, besides 
he wished to be a legislator ; he perceived that there was 
nothing in the christian system which could flatter sensual 
hearts. The Jewish people had ceased to constitute a 
corporation, or nation, or religion ; they were dispersed 
and isolated throughout the universe ; he preferred them 
to the christians, at least for his present purpose. He 
imagined that in appropriating Jewish spoils detection 
would become more difficult; thus he had recourse to the 
Jewish institute, he detached many of its practices which 
compose a portion of his own. It sufficed not to invent a 
new religion, it should be established on a stable basis, 
the edifice should be perpetual. His natural eloquence 
and capacity to counterfeit the prophet, rallied thousands 
round him ; nevertheless, there were some indocile indivi- 
duals who refused to hear him, who conceited the reso- 
lution of ridding the world of the legislator. The existence 
of a conspiracy against his life was intimated to Mahomet; 
though he had wit enough to make laws, he felt himself 
deficient in the fortitude necessary to act the martyr, so 
he resolved upon flight, and attended by many of his 
followers he retired to Medina where he was received as a 
messenger from God. 

He had hitherto employed no other means than those 
of exhortation to disseminate his new opinions, but as 
conversions were no longer quick enough for his purpose, 
he assumed arms to accelerate events, and this appeared 
the most compendious method. At the head of some 
determined Arabs, he attacked his native place, he put 
the persons who had offered opposition to his enterprise to 
the sword. This audacious and successful stroke increased 



308 



THE SCROLL. 



his troops, he was shortly at the head of a formidable 
army. He obtained the mastery of a considerable extent 
of territory ; his conquering career extended to that very 
Hauran in which he had appeared in such a different 
condition a little time anteriorly. He discovered Sergius 
his master ; they had many conferences together, and the 
mailed warrior again received instruction from the cowled 
monk ; his disciples were alarmed at these conferences ; 
and as Sergius was exceedingly austere they dreaded lest 
he should induce their chief to whom they had sworn blind 
obedience, to make their law more onerous. This appre- 
hension, which was probably ill-founded, caused them to 
adopt a line of conduct which Sergius was the victim of, 
and he was strangled by them in the night time. The 
manuscript remarks that the authors of the murder in a 
previous revel became inebriated — the principal reason of 
the prohibition of those inebriating liquors which, in the 
opinion of Mahomet, had produced the crime. To honor 
Sergius's memory, from whom he had received such 
friendly offices, the manuscript informs us that Mahomet 
recommended to his followers to respect christian religious. 
Such was the substance of the scroll, and its verisimilitude 
is undeniable; could this then be that celebrated testament 
which Bayle in his article "Mahomet," has described, 
and on which he has a long dissertation in his notes. I do 
not think it is. This manuscript, says Bayle, was brought 
from the East by Father Pacifique Scaliger, a Capucin, 
and translated into Latin by Gabriel Sionita ; 'twas printed 
in Paris, 1630; at Rostach, 1638; and at Hamburg, 
1690 ; and found in the monastery of the monks of 
Mount Carmel the original was placed in the library of 
the King. The most able critics disagree, he informs us^ 



ELMACIN. 



309 



as to whether this is an authentic document. Grotius, 
Voetius, Bespiers, and many other men of learning, con- 
sider it supposititious, while Saumaise, Hinkelman, and 
Ricault, suppose it genuine. It would not be becoming 
upon my part to enter into these disputes, as the 
document that I have read was very different from this 
real or pretended testament. — I stand by the story I have 
perused, and Elmacin, I am persuaded, had seen some 
manuscript like this, since in his life of Mahomet he con- 
fesses that according to accounts that the christians have 
possession of, the feelings of Mahomet were favourable to 
them. Saumaise has transcribed the expression of Elmacini 
Narrat Almachinus in vita Mahumedis ex historiis Chris- 
tianorum addictum ilium fuisse cliristianis et benevolum 



1 am, &c, 



310 



TOLERATION* 



In confirmation of the assertion of the Missionary of 
Damascus, as to the tolerance of well-informed Turks, 
and as to their respect for Christianity, we give a letter to 
the public, which was written by a Missionary to his 
sister, concerning a religious ceremony which is annually 
celebrated in the capital of Turkey,— 



My beloved Sister, 

I am too well aware of your affection for religion, and 
of the interest you take in whatever may concern it, not 
to make you acquainted with the edifying spectacle which 
I have seen here recently. Would you believe it, my 
beloved sister, processions are made with as much tran- 
quility by the Catholics in Constantinople as in Paris ; I 
shall simply describe what I have seen : — august and 
solemn as this ceremony is, it is not so marvelous on 
account of its magnificence, as on account of the liberty 
with which it is performed, and the respect with which 
even the Mussulmans regard it. A confraternity dedi- 
cated to St. Anne, which flourished here for six or seven 
centuries, has been extended to the Jesuits' church during 
half a century; its antiquity is thus respectable. The privi- 
leges possessed by this fraternity are not a little singular ; 
the brothers are allowed to chauntthe gospel as if they were 
deacons, in a stole, and after the communion upon Easter 
Sunday the brothers receive wine. The noblest Catholics 
in the country composed this brotherhood at one time, 
but admission was obtained some years ago for the mer- 



THE PROCESSION. 



an 



chants of France and Venice, by whom additional lustre 
is conferred on the society; this is rather a remark- 
able circumstance ; these pious establishments commonly 
decrease in strength as they become old, while successive 
years have only served to add to the fervency of this. A 
treasure is possessed by this fraternity which it has preserved 
in all the revolutions of the capital and empire ; it consists 
of a portion of the crown of thorns which was worn by 
Jesus Christ , this invaluable relic is verified by the most 
authentic documents, and the procession that I speak of 
originates in this. It left our church at two on the night 
of Holy Saturday, and returned to the church at four, its 
circuit you may easily imagine is extensive; a multitude 
of trumpeters in regular array, violin and hautbois players, 
collected from the ambassadors' palaces, made the city 
resound with the music of their instruments, and opened 
the march at the head of the procession ; three splendid 
banners environed by flambeaux succeeded the musicians ; 
the banners were followed by the confraternity, two and 
two, to the number of two hundred, dressed in albs of 
the finest and the whitest linen, and each individual carry- 
ing a torch. Two choirs of Turkish music, which were by 
no means destitute of harmony, occurred in the column, with 
an interval between them ; and when the trumpets ceased 
they responded to each other at this interval; surrounded by 
fifty wax-lights, a portable altar appeared next, which 
was magnificently decorated ; a figure of the resurrection, 
of well-wrought silver was standing* on this altar. A 
silver dome, sustained on silver columns, contains an 
image of our Saviour risen, of which the value is immense. 
This altar was surrounded by gilded lanterns, adorned 
with sculpture^ which, upon the whole, had a very fine 



312 



THE PROCESSION* 



effect. Cordeliers, Trinitarians, and Dominicans, a long 
column of the clergy, next appeared, while the rear was 
brought up by the Jesuits, apparelled in long mantles. 
The cupola or dome of the canopy was snow white 
damask, sprinkled with flowers of gold, of which the 
fringe was perfectly magnificent. This canopy was 
carried by the prior and the three first officers of the 
fraternity, girded in a snow white alb like the rest of the 
society* It was I who had the honour of bearing the 
venerated thorn. I was vested with a cope and scarf, 
of gold embroidery. This relic is contained in a golden 
sheath, enclosed in a cup of crystal, of which the 
coronation and the foot are of a different material. Priests, 
apparelled in dalmatics, with a quantity of flambeaux 
encircled the canopy ; silver vases, filled with rose water, 
were carried by four of the confraternity, with which 
they incessently sprinkled the assistants. Mingled with 
the perfumes, perpetually burned in innumerable censors, 
this scent embalmed the city as we passed, of which the 
streets were lined with crowds of people. About twenty 
of the confraternity and the principal officers of the palace, 
having each a torch, concluded the procession. There 
was not the slightest breath of wind, and the heavens 
could not possibly be more serene. 

All the ambassadors at present at the Porte, not ex- 
cepting those of England and Sweden, had repaired to 
several houses to see this procession pass. The Marquis 
de Villeneuve, by whom France is represented, who is 
distinguished by his solid piety as much as by his zeal to 
extend religion and sustain it, came with his lady to our 
church where solemn mass was sung. This church of 
ours, the finest in the country, as I conceive, was hung with 



FLOWERS. 



313 



doth of gold and cloth of silver, furnished by the prior of 
the confraternity, a rich Venetian merchant. 

The Armenians whom the authority of our ambassador 
intimidates, have been brought about so much by his 
caresses, that we have reason to expect their accession to 
our church. The x\rmenians requested that the pro- 
cession should deflect, so as to pass by one of their 
churches. This favour was accorded with the more 
facility as the bishop of the church is a Catholic in his 
heart, and as he only waits for a suitable occasion to de- 
clare himself openly, which proceeding would have been 
taken by him before now, if in the hope of hastening the 
reunion he had not been persuaded to defer it, as he is 
more likely to be of service to that measure in his 
present state. In his cope and mitre he received the 
procession as it passed before the church. Many of his 
clergy accompanied him, who were preceded by nearly 
half a hundred flambeaux. For a few moments the pro- 
cession halted. One of our deacons intoned the gospel 
of the day and the prayer of the patron of the church. 
The prelate approached ; I presented him the relic and 
he kissed it. Showers of rose water were administered 
diffusely ; they scattered it with such abundance, and 
flowers were flung about in such a quantity, that I was 
obliged to keep my eyes shut for some moments. The 
Turks, it is said, flung flowers on the procession from their 
windows. As I did not see them I cannot guarantee the 
truth of this assertion. Doubtless this ceremony will 
surprise you, my beloved sister. I am fully persuaded 
that you would never have imagined that there is more 
toleration in Turkey than in England. Every thing was 
conducted with such piety and decorum as to make it 



314 CHRISTIANS AMONG INFIDELS. 



surpass many of our processions in Europe ; and 
Christians, so often dissipated in the centre of Christianity, 
consider it a duty to appear more collected in the eyes of 
infidelity, to convey a higher notion of the God whom 
they adore and the sanctity of the religion that they 
profess. This little narrative will give you pleasure and 
please such persons as are interested for the glory of our 
faith. 

I am, &c. 



REVOLT. 



3i5 



LETTER 
FROM FATHER GURYNANT, 



Damascus, 4th Nov. 1739. 

A general rebellion which has broken out, has been 
well nigh the ruin of our mission in this city, and has 
caused us, as it is, the most cruel vexations on the part of 
the Schismatics and Turks. It had birth at the con- 
clusion of the year 1738. Solomon Pacha being em- 
ployed in the war which the Grand Signior was waging 
with the Emperor, a successor was appointed in the person 
of Hussein Pacha. This oflicer, who was accustomed to 
pillage all the towns which he had hitherto controlled, 
such as Tripoli, Aleppo, &c, calculated upon considerable 
accessions to his wealth by this new government. But 
he did not know the genius of the people of Damascus, 
who are proud and arrogant by nature, and fiercely 
hostile to every species of domination which galls them 
in the least degree, a lesson which he learned very 
speedily at great expense. Friday was the first day of 
the ebullition ; as Friday is the sabbath of the Turks, 
I particularly mention this : They repair to the mosques 

p 2 



CARNAGE, 



at mid-day, during the ramadan more especially. Prom 
the summit of a tower in the form of a steeple, the people 
were invited by a marabout to prayer. While every one 
was occupied extern to the temple in his washings or 
purifications in anticipation of the moment when admission- 
would be given, the dcors were suddenly closed and the 
priests appeared upon the minarets. " Retire," they ex- 
claimed, " there shall be no orisons to-day, that prayer 
which issues from a heart which is vexed and venomous 
displeases the divinity. Go, " they continued, " avenge the 
honour of the prophet ; avenge his sacred laws, and do all 
that your celestial zeal inspires." The priests had hardly 
spoken when the people ran to arms, nothing could be 
heard throughout the city but the clash of weapons, and 
the lire of musquetry, and the cries of fury and tumult, 
uproar, and commotion. The great men of the town 
meantime assembled ; they repaired to the Mufti to 
prevail on him to participate in this rebellion, and on re- 
ceiving his refusal^ two of his domestics were murdered 
In his presence, and the door of his abode was shattered 
into fragments* He delayed no longer, he is hurried 
away by the torrent ; the great men go to the tribunals 
and prohibit business to the courts till such time as orders 
shall be forwarded. Then a great procession was quickly 
formed, the priests and the pontiff, the magistrates and 
great men were seen going through the streets in cere- 
monial dresses, with their hands upon their heads to 
testify regret and mourning. This spectacle produced 
the requisite effect ; the people became furious ;•• at the first 
h\ow y from fifty to sixty persons connected with the Pacha 
were massacred ; the carnage would be more extensive if 
fe bad not been reported in the town that the Pacha had* 



ANARCHY. 



escaped by a secret door from his seraglio. A caln: 
came over the spirit of the people, and the remainder of 
the day was all tranquillity. The Pacha was informed of 
this circumstance and that very evening returned to his 
home ; he sent for the Aga of the Janissaries, and the Aga 
of the Capi-Koulys, who refused obedience, and it was 
not until next day that they came into his presence. 
" Why do you not restrain your troops/' the Pacha 
vociferated furiously "I shall teach you to repent your 
treason ; close the doors." His orders were in act of 
execution when a servant whispered in his ear, that the 
cannon of the castle was levelled at the palace, and that the 
match was about to be applied. When he learned this he 
lowered his tone and spoke of accommodation. The Agas 
raised their voices very high ; peace could not possibly be ex- 
pected from the city, they said, except upon the following 
conditions. — 1st, He had received 900 purses from the 
citizens which he should restore. — 2nd, A proportion of 
his troops should be dismissed. — 3rd, He should pledge 
himself in writing to molest no one during the con- 
tinuance of his authority. — 4th, All his prisoners should 
be set free, provided they laid down their arms and 
opened their shops as usual. He promised them whatever 
they required. Hereupon, tranquillity appeared to be 
established, but governor and governed they kept a wary 
eye upon one another's movements. It stood the citizens 
upon ; three days after the promise had been plighted, with 
4000 men behind him, at the dead of night, the Pacha 
entered a suburb of the city, of which he had the greatest 
reason to complain ; he abandoned it to pillage, sacking 
the houses and setting fire to them, and massacreing all 
who offered opposition. The alarm extended through 



318 



ANARCHY. 



the city upon all sides ; the populace assembled so soon f 
and in such numbers, that, while keeping up a running 
fight, the Bashaw, who sustained alarming losses, retired 
with, a mutilated fragment of his troops, and shrinking 
first to his seraglio, he subsequently sought the open 
campaign. The tumult continued though the Pacha stole 
away — imagine for a moment, the flagrant excesses of 
which a violent unbridled populace are capable, whoj." 
maddened by their wrongs, and destitute of discipline, can 
listen to no voice but that of fury — whose frantic passions 
riot uncontrolled, and who are hostile, openly and 
avowedly, to all they that bear the name of Christianity. 

Wherever christians were perceived, they cursed their 
faith. A certain attraction was attributed to them, which 
brought down misfortunes on the city ; their houses were 
forced, and their property was plundered, and they were 
very happy when their lives were spared. Many ladies 
died of fear, while others preferred to perish by the 
scimitar, rather than receive the embraces of the infidels* 
I have often had a pistol presented to my breast, and a 
sabre raised above my head : the windows of our house 
one day were shivered into atoms by repeated vollies. 
They lighted a great fire at the door of the Franciscans, 
for the purpose of burning the inmates of the hospital ; 
the extinction of this fire was a species of miracle. Were 
I to detail their cruelties, I would never make an end, I 
return to the Pacha. 

Escaped from the city, he proceeded to Neapolis, or 
Napolose, to Jerusalem, and to the other cities of his 
government, to levy the accustomed tributes and prepare 
for a pilgrimage to Mecca. Every one knows that a 
number of Turks influenced by religion or by interest. 



THE PACHA, 



annually repair on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where they 
suppose the body of their prophet reposes, The city of 
Damascus is the rendezvous of Islamism. Caravans 
from Constantinople, and from Turcomania, and Persia, 
form a reunion at Damascus. 

When the vast multitude of pilgrims are all together, 
and when viands are provided for a two months' march 
through sterile deserts, the caravans depart, invariably 
every year fifteen days before the ramadao. The Pacha 
of Damascus is the master and conductor of the caravan : 
to him it appertains to give orders for the halt and for the 
march, to terminate the quarrels which arise among the 
travellers, and to defend them from the Arabs, who in- 
cessantly assault them from their quitting Damascus till 
their return to that city. 

While the Pacha was traversing the towns in his de- 
pendency, the people of Damascus were seriously con- 
sidering how they could prevent his return to their town. 
They fortified their ramparts wherever they were weak ; 
all dilapidated places were repaired, ammunition and 
provisions were collected for a siege, and the people put 
their city in a posture of defence, in case Hussein should 
return with reunited Pachas which he was absolutely 
doing as the rumour ran. They took an additional precau- 
tion which was very unsuccessful. In justification of their 
conduct they sent the Emperor a manifesto, but were 
informed that the Grand Vizier, the protector of his 
creature the Bashaw, detained the document, which never 
reached the presence of the Grand Signior. 

They were for some time intimidated by this informa- 
tion, insomuch that the Pachas' entrance was not opposed. 
Of the four conditions that they had extorted, two were 



320 



FACHA HUSSEIN. 



complied with ; the prisoners were set at freedom and the 
troops had been cashiered ; he derived so much confidence 
from this compliance, that he ventured to reside in his 
palace as before. But from the time he arrived to the 
period of his departure for Mecca, he never dared to show 
himself in public, nor did he on departing nominate a 
deputy to manage the Pachalic in his absence. During 
the anarchy which followed, which gave the malcontents 
but too much scope, — who found their account in the 
interregnum, there was no cessation to thej troubles of 
Damascus, which continued till the caravan returned from 
the desert. When pressed by the Arabs, who hung upon 
the rear of the caravan like a swarm of wasps, the Pacha 
had recourse to his cashiered troops, whose admission to 
Damascus he promised them to procure, but a column of 
50,000 men, which deployed from the city during this 
negotiation, taught him the necessity of being more chary 
of his promises. They compelled him to a parley which 
continued for two whole days, during which, the 20,000 
pilgrims made a halt. He could only obtain that his 
troops should be permitted for three days' space, to encamp 
near the walls that they might remove from the town 
their effects and families, but when this period was 
expired, if the tents were not stricken, they should fall 
upon the soldiers as before. Ever after this disaster 
Hussein \*as entirely shorn of his beams, hid in his 
seraglio, hated by his soldiers, affronted by his people, 
without authority and without power, he had nothing but 
the name of a Pacha. When anything was agitated in 
which he should decide, a mere adventurer, Achmet 
Abdel Brady, but an intrepid and enterprising spirit called 
the question to his tribunal, deciding in a tone that com*- 



ACHMET ABBEL BRADY. 



321 



pelled obedience. The Pacha in the meantime, maintained 
a correspondence with the governor of the castle, which 
lorded it over the city and its environs, and was furnished 
with artillery ; if this citadel were his, he should be indis- 
putably master of the city. But suspecting this intelli- 
gence, the Capi-Koulys seized upon the gates of the 
castle and made the governor a prisoner. Instantaneously 
the signal ran from minaret to minaret, the rebels re- 
assembled and hurried to the palace of the Pacha. The 
onslaught of the citizens was met by the troops with 
intrepidity, and eventually repelled. In turn the soldiers of 
the Pacha bore down upon the populace and were 
irresistible, but the tide turned the succeeding day, when 
the combat was renewed with equal fury upon either side, 
and on the evening of the third day, after many vacillations, 
victory decided in favour of the rebels. The number of 
the dead was very nearly equal. But the citizens were 
inconsolable for Achmet Abdel Brady, whose merit and 
bravery had made him the leader of the revolution* 
Whilst the sorrowful city prepared a mausoleum for its 
hero, and invoked his name, as the father and liberator of 
his country in songs that recorded his achievements, the 
Pacha, whose palace had been damaged by the fire, fled 
from the city for the third time. But where were the 
means of subsisting in the country? He had saved nothing 
but his life, in the hurry of his flight ; he had no resource but 
to levy contributions, a proceeding that made the measure 
of his misfortunes overflow. 

The plundered peasants crowded to Damascus, filling 
the streets with complaints of the ravages of Hussein. 
In the city they met with willing auditors, and the Mufti 
was consulted, and after many mature deliberations, it 

p 3 



322 



PURSUIT. 



was decided by that dignitary, that the law permitted 
them to make away with an open enemy of God and men. 
who aimed at the lives and the properties of others. An 
expedition was immediately prepared. 

The commander-in-chief and his military officers, the 
Mufti and members of the law, and the most distinguished 
citizens, issued from the portals of Damascus, with 
40,000 men behind them, and the succeeding day their 
horses halted, where they anticipated meeting the Pacha, 
Without giving them time to tighten girth, divisions were 
advanced to occupy the heights and penetrate the valley, 
but it profited them nothing ; the Pacha, apprised the pre- 
ceding evening of the danger by which he was approached, 
decamped with such celerity that 600 horse who followed 
him were unable to succeed in bringing him to blows. 
The foe was very far, but the city was as troubled as 
before ; uproar and commotion universally prevailed, and 
they never ceased to pillage and affront the christians, so 
that it was only in October, when order was restored by 
Osman Pacha, that we could possiblyresume our functions. 
But we are still undelivered from anxiety : besides that, 
we have not here, as elsewhere, the countenance afforded 
by a consul. We have to treat with people to whom the 
name of a Frank is an object of abhorrence, and who 
have persecuted Apostolic men from the birth of Chris- 
tianity. St. Paul the i\.postle, as every one knows, was 
compelled to conceal himself and fly the fury of their 
persecution, and we have scarcely seen a week since 1 
came here, which is now three years, in which we have 
not had to suffer from the Schismatics and Turks. 



323 



EPISTLE 

TO THE FATHER PROCURATOR 

OF THE MISSIONS OF THE LEVANT, 



Rev. Sir, 

You request some account of the voyage I performed 
from Constantinople to Aleppo, which is a satisfaction 
which must not be refused you ; well I know that you 
seek for information solely for the purpose of making 
such arrangements as shall contribute to convert the 
natives, in the various countries, of which I may have 
the honour of speaking to your reverence. 

I was destined for the city of Aleppo, and yet spent 
five months at Constantinople, having been commissioned 
to obtain commandments for the service of our Missions, 
from the Sublime Porte, and this through the medium of 
the French Ambassador who was to demand them from the 
Grand Signior, in the name of the Most Christian King. 
His Excellency himself has had the kindness s to prepare 
the papers which it was necessary to lay before the 
Grand Vizier, and which were conceived in terms, in the 



324 



CARCASSES. 



highest degree friendly to the Roman Catholic religion, 
but some misunderstanding or other, the subject of which 
was diplomatic ceremony, delayed the affair for several 
months. Feeling that this affair was not likely to be 
terminated speedily, and becoming weary of my inutility, 
I prevailed on his excellency to permit my departure for 
Aleppo. Having waited on the wife of the Ambassador, 
she was so good as to assure me, as I took my leave, 
that as the cause of our society was that of Heaven, our 
business should be her's, and that I might depend upon 
her cares henceforth, in pursuing and soliciting the 
matters that we wanted. Could I have confided them to 
better hands ? In placing them in hers, I was placing 
them in those of piety and virtue ; I willingly received 
such gracious offers ; I endeavoured to express my 
gratitude, and totally delivered from the fardel of solici- 
tude, I ceased to think of anything except departing. 

You can travel from Constantinople to Aleppo either 
by the land or by the sea ; I deliberated long as to which 
I should adopt ; I have great aversion for a voyage, as the 
sea does not suit my constitution. It was spring time 
now, and the season I supposed would be fully as delight- 
ful throughout the extent of my journey, as it was in the 
metropolis in which I was sojourning ; when luckily I 
«aw some travellers arrive who had journeyed over land 
from the city of Aleppo, and who, though veiy finely 
mounted, descended from their horses in a melancholy 
plight, from the hardships they had suffered, amid frosts 
and snows in which they had very nearly lost their lives. 
I learned, in like manner from another traveller, that the 
-carcasses of horses and of human beings were strewn 
along the road which he traversed from Aleppo. Nothing 



THE GRAND ADMIRAL AND THE CAFUCH1N. 325 



more was requisite to render me decisire. I fortified my 
bosom with the cuirass of the poet, and determined to 
encounter the terrors of the deep ; every thing considered, 
I came to the conclusion, that suffering was immea- 
surably preferable to death. 

Persons proposed to me to go to Scio, from Scio to 
Rhodes, and from Rhodes to Cyprus. I might do some 
good, they told me, during the sojourn I should 
make at Rhodes, for there in the galleys of the Grand 
Signior, the number of the slaves was perfectly incalcu- 
lable. They had no priest although they had a chapel, 
and I could perform in the middle of these miserable 
people, the functions of my ministry, with perfect freedom. 
In the approaching paschal season, it would be such 
solace to the slaves to see me, and perform their paschal 
duty, through my means. This was to me 
exceedingly attractive ; however, you will learn by the 
end of my adventures, that all the merit I can boast of, 
is that of volition. 

Finding I should want a recommendatory letter, a very 
-zealous missioner, a Capuchin, procured me an epistle 
from the Capitan Pacha, Grand Admiral of Turkey, a 
person by whom the missioner is much esteemed. It 
requested the Cadis of Scio and of Rhodes to consider me 
as one of his domestics, and to allow me perfect liberty to 
pass in all directions. In return for this kindness of the 
Capuchin, I'll acquaint you with the uses which he makes 
of the good will with which he always is regarded by the 
Capitan Pacha. Through the instrumentality of this 
Signior, he has caused an Archbishop of the catholic 
religion to be placed in the Nestorian church, which 
unhappily exists in the Diarbekir ; thus, the solitary use 



326 THE FRIAR AND THE GRAND ADMIRAL. 



which he makes of his protection, is to benefit the chris- 
tian faith. This missionary friar attended the Bashaw, 
in his last campaign against the Muscovites, and he still 
continues to attend him as a member of the faculty, — a 
species of slavery to which the fervour of his zeal has 
condemned the Capuchin ; it is true, it is a voluntary 
slavery, but on this account it cannot be less painful to a 
man of the merit and of the virtue of the friar. You com- 
mence as their physician, and you conclude by being their 
slave. Let that be as it may, certain it is, that, furnished 
with the letter with which the friar provided me, I 
thought of nothing further than my embarkation ; a Greek 
vessel was ready to set sail for Scio ; — at the recommend- 
ation of a friend I got on board this vessel, passage free. 

I embarked on the 22nd of March, with my little pro- 
visions, resolved to fast with the Greeks and to observe 
as much austerity as they. They eat no fish, except on 
the Sabbath of the Palms, or on the day of the annuncia- 
tion. Herbs and legumes are the only sustenance which 
the majority of the Greeks make use of. Shell fish is 
permitted them, and all such fish as have no blood, and at- 
tach themselves to rocks. The Greeks are so rigid in their 
abstinence from eggs, from butter, and from milk, that 
when sick, they prefer to die rather than violate their 
rules. They grant no dispensations, be the persons 
whom they may, or whatever be the reasons for requiring 
them. I must confess that this severity, although it be 
extravagant, elicited reflections of a painful nature on the 
audacity with which they outrage such institutes in 
Christendom at present. 

Nothing inspires the Asiatics with more aversion for 
the church of Rome, than that relaxation of these lenten 



GREEK LENT. 



321 



laws into which they erroneously suppose she has encou- 
raged us to fall. I did not wish to augment this ill- 
founded aversion, but if the Greeks were to see a reli- 
gious like myself as heedless of their rules as the laity of 
Europe, it would increase this antipathy a hundred fold ; 
and even as it was, despite the regularity with which I 
lived, many of my fellow travellers perused me with a 
jealous e} r e, incredulous of my fidelity, and attentive only 
to their prejudices. I invited a passenger to dine upon 
a little oil and rice, when a boy whose age was scarcely 
more than nine, who, to the best of my belief, was the 
son of a Greek priest, arrested my intended guest, and 
told him, with terror in his eyes, that I was a catholic, 
and that I eat flesh meat. We took care to disabuse the 
child, and this tended in some measure to rebuild my 
reputation. 

We had excellent company on board : a metropolitan 
was one of these, the mother of the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, and some of her relations who were going 
back to Scio, of which the dignitary is a native, 
and who had visited him to felicitate him upon his 
elevation. The crew were a worthy set of fellows, for 
the most part natives of the isles of Greece, and espe- 
cially the isle of Pathmos. Some of the sailors had a 
little knowledge of Italian. I addressed myself to these 
in order to be informed upon certain points which are 
familiar to mariners, and with which I wished to be 
acquainted ; I fairly returned instruction for instruction, 
by insinuating some reflections on the subject of their 
everlasting welfare, and had I known the vulgar Greek, I 
should have been, I am certain, more successful, for the 
poor fellows were tractable and docile. We emerged 



S28 



GREEK MARINERS. 



from the port of Constantinople with a very friendly wind ; 
assisted by the currents, we made considerable way in a 
very little time. We were quickly passing by the coasts 
of Thrace, and our sailors who knew every thing that 
came in sight, told me the names of the places that pre- 
sented themselves. With the chart in one hand and the 
compass in the other, I discovered, with astonishment, 
much bad reckoning ; and is it not perfectly surprising, 
that vessels have made, and continue to make so many 
voyages in this vicinity, and that we yet remain destitute 
of anything approaching to exactitude. This circumstance 
put me out of temper with our geographers ; it was 
nothing throughout but towns omitted or misplaced; 
to rectify these errors, I shall enter into certain geogra- 
phical details which the reader may pass over if he consi- 
der them as tedious, but which are certainly more useful 
than matter more amusing. 

At twelve French miles from the city of Stamboul, my 
attention was directed to Agios Stephanos. They shewed 
me Sicomesy at two miles farther on, at six miles lower 
down Milo is discerned, and six miles more remote the 
greater Sicomesy ; you subsequently pass Panagia, a 
place which is at three miles distance from the former. 
Peaatis is seen at eight miles distance from Panagia. 
Selivri is equally distant from Penatis, from which Hera- 
clea is removed but eighteen miles ; at the close of the 
evening we cast anchor within sight of this celebrated 
town, with the design of passing the night there. The 
situation of this city is exceedingly fine. Heraclea is 
erected on a little mountain which protrudes into the 6ea, 
and constitutes a cape. I was very solicitous rf visiting 
the city, but the sea was so disturbed that it would have 



THE CONSUL OF VENICE , 329 

oeen impossible to make the shore. I was under the 
necessity of remaining satisfied with simply the external 
aspect of the city. The Archbishop is one of the most 
considerable metropolitans in the Patriarchate of Constan- 
tinople ; he places the crown on the Patriarch/ s brow, as 
-the bishop of Ostia places the tiara on his Holiness. 

We set sail the succeeding day, after the sun had 
risen, and made ninety miles in eight hours. The first 
place of notoriety that we caught sight of on the coast, 
was Rhedeste or Rhodosto, forty miles from Heraclea ; 
seven miles from thence we caught si^ht of Suandarsi : 
seven miles more and we came to Ganofano ; at the ter- 
mination of the next three miles Mircophilo hove in 
sight ; after three miles sail Peristasi was before us ; and 
another three miles brought us to Panili ; then a long" inter- 
'al of six aiid twenty miles brought us to Gallipoli. All 
vessels, whatever, from Constantinople, are obliged to 
pause for a day before Gallipoli ; officers carefully visit 
them to ascertain whether there be fugitive slaves or 
contraband merchandise on board. A priest, a native of 
Scio, of the Latin ritual, is the consul of Venice In Galli- 
poli, he is entitled to a very trifling impost on each vessel 
that puts in, and if he had no other revenue the consul 
would certainly be very poor. He and his valet are the 
only catholic inhabitants of the city ; I knew him very 
intimately in Constantinople, he gave me the kindest 
possible reception, he even persuaded me to lodge at his 
residence ; having passed the night there, I had the happi- 
ness the succeeding morning of celebrating the sacrifice 
of mass. It is a consolation to be able to repair the 
outrages which Heaven receives at the hands of the un- 
believers, by the celebration of the holy oblatiom in places 



330 



DARDANELLES, 



to which it would seem that satan wishes to establish a 
prescriptive title. The city is of moderate dimensions, 
and the castle which defends it is not strong. The sea 
constitutes an estuary, which is far from being a per- 
fect harbour, and the place in which the vessels anchor, 
is less a haven than a roadstead. The ruins of the city of 
Lampsacus rear their mouldering forms opposite Gallipoli ; 
it is situated between Serakino, which lies nearer to 
Constantinople, and Pregaz, which lies nearer to the 
Dardanelles. There is little more than thirty miles 
between Gallipoli and the Dardanelles. Your vessel passes 
Mayto previously to coming to the first castles, of which the 
distance from the former is about five miles. Mayto is a vil- 
lage situated in Europe, which abounds in wine, a circum- 
stance of much utility to vessels, which in passing back or 
forward, invariably put in there, for the purpose of procuring 
a supply. One must suffer the same visit at the Dardanel- 
les, which is previously endured at Gallipoli. Finally set 
free from these importunate exactions, we took the open sea 
to cast anchor at Tenedos, where we remained at anchor the 
succeeding day, awaiting the subsidence of the wind 
which blew violent and strongly, and almost in our teeth, 
Thence we sailed to Metelin, the Lesbos of the ancients ; 
this place is no longer what it was of old. Lesbos has 
ceased to be paramount in Troas, it no longer lords it 
over Eolidis ; I cannot inform you as to whether it be 
fecund in fine geniuses or no, having been unable to put 
that question to the test. I can assure you, however, 
without fear of contradiction, that there is no Sappho in 
this island now, that no Alceus strikes his lyre in its pre- 
cincts, that it now contains no learned Theophrastes to 
furnish commentaries on Aristotle and enrich it with his 



METELIN. 



331 



writings. The muses are invariably amateurs of liberty, 
and seldom lift their voices for a subjugated people. 
Lesbos was the father-land of Pitticus, one of the seven 
sages of the Grecians. He lived a long time in the isle of 
Lesbos, and uniting valour to sagacity, aided in rescuing 
his country from the yoke of tyrants. The isle, which 
appeared to be extremely fertile, contains three hundred 
and sixty villages, and has three small ports, Navagia. 
Metelin, and Tokmak. 

Metelin is a large village or a little town, destitute of 
circumvallation ; the town is covered by a little mountain 
which advances its front into the sea, and constitutes a 
cape ; on the summit of this mountain, a well built castle, the 
labour of the Genoese, when masters of the isle, elevates 
its lofty form and defends the village. We may call this 
mountain a peninsula, and the earth which unites it to the 
main land is covered with the houses which constitute the 
town. Having one on either side of its peninsula 
Metelin has two harbours, of which the one to the north 
is of very little use, from the absence of a cover ; the 
haven to the south is sheltered from the winds, but hav- 
ing little water, is only fit for gallies — vessels of great 
draught cannot penetrate the bay. Some of the inhabi- 
tants are Turks while some of them are Christians ; the 
latter, whose ritual is Greek, outnumber the Mahomedans. 
As the space which intervenes between Constantinople 
and Metelin is small, and as the gallies of the Grand 
Signior frequently bear up and cast anchor in the road- 
stead, pirates seldom trouble its repose, and the Turks, 
who can live with less terror here than elsewhere, only 
multiply too rapidly in Metelin. A metropolitan resides 
in Metelin, and a bishop in Moiino, 



332 



WRONG COURSE. 



We passed three days in this place, for the wind, whick 
was blowing in a contrary direction, prevented our depar- 
ture ; it ultimately altered, and many barques and saiques 
were to be seen spreading their sails upon their yards, 
and taking the favourable winds, and preparing to quit 
the harbour ; but the pilot of the petty bark in which I 
should tempt the deep, was unwilling to set sail until the 
ensuing day, and yet lie was unwilling that I should go 
on board any other vessel, I could not well divine his 
reason, for paying him nothing, as I did, I could not pos- 
sibly imagine what use I could be to him ; however, he 
removed my doubts ; he told me that he was fully per- 
suaded that if he happened to encounter christian pirates, 
I would save him from their insults, at least, I would 
save his vessel, he assured me ; not wishing to indulge 
this chimerical idea; as it was Saturday evening, and as I 
was solicitous of being in Scio the succeeding morning, 
for the purpose of celebrating mass, I entered a saique 
which was quitting the harbour, the mariners of which, 
who were my only company, were natives of Pathmos, 
returning to their isle. I was very badly recompensed for 
my hurry ; the pains I took to hasten my departure, cost 
me very dear. 

The wind which continued in our stern was exceeding 
strong, but not having been able to distinguish the canal 
which separates Scio from the main land, though the wind 
was fair for entering the channel, our pilot, as the night 
was fast approaching, by standing somewhat sea-ward, 
steered by mistake along the outside of the isle, and it 
was only when the sun had risen and the darkness 
was dispersed, and when it was impossible to retrace his 
course, that his error became manifest. Compelled by 



DESERT SHORE, 



333 



the energy of the wind, we were forced to continue on 
the same tack, and our only resourse was to seek some 
inlet in which we might find some shelter from the wind. 
Driven by stress of weather, we ultimately ran our bark 
into a creek ; here I recalled and sought to practice the 
precept of Pittacus the wise man of Metelin. We must 
make use of every possible precaution to ward off 
vexatious accidents, but, if they descend on us, said 
Pittacus, we must bear them with equanimity. Having 
disembarked, we ascended, by means of rocks which were 
nearly perpendicular, to the summits of some neighbouring 
heights, in order to discover if no house were within sight, 
or no sign of human habitation on this desert coast, but 
alas ! mountains towering above mountains, precipices 
heaped on top of precipices, were all that met the eye in 
this desolate place, turn to what side you would. We 
now sought some rocky fountain, some crystal well 
which we hoped to find, sparkling, pure, and em- 
bosomed in the rocks, from which to quench our thirst 
during the time that heaven should retain us in this 
howling wilderness, but in vain. With the utmost 
exertion of the powers of vision, we could not discern a 
solitary tree, whose shade might prove a refuge from 
the fervour of the sun, whose overpowering radiance 
was intolerable. Heaven eventually blessed our re- 
searches, for I was so happy as to succeed in discovering 
a spacious cave, in which I had as much shadow as I 
pleased, and a little more coolness than was quite 
desirable. 

V\ hat gave us most uneasiness, was, that the wind ap- 
peared to be a perfect trade wind, it blew so constantly in 



334 



CORSAIRS EXPECTED 



one direction. Meantime our stock of water began to 
fail, and I found it necessary to reiterate a request for a 
draught, repeatedly before my wishes would be complied 
with. After all, the fear of Corsairs caused our sailors 
more inquietude, than any other evil, imaginary or real. 
They were fully persuaded that if the pirates spied us, 
they would bear down upon us instantaneously and 
plunder our vessel, if they did no worse : imagine for 
a moment our miserable destiny ! We should cer- 
tainly have died of thirst and hunger, in this 
melancholy solitude. Our prospects were anything at 
all but pleasing. I learned to appreciate the merit of 
St. Francis Xavier, and of his devoted imitators, who 
breathed their last in deserts, such as this, without 
repining. But frightful as my present situation was, 
it was far from being so dismal as the destitution in 
which they expired. I patiently submitted to the 
will of heaven, but I confess that I was unable to 
extract J;hat sweetness from my present situation, which 
sages have discerned in utter loneliness, and. though, 
with the assistance of the Lord, I calmly prepared 
myself for such encounters with calamity as he should 
please to appoint, it was not without a certain struggle 
with natural repugnances, whose existence I confess 
with shame. 

We spent three whole days in this painful situation ; 
ultimately a wind arose at midnight, which was very 
weak, it is true, but which was sufficient to deliver us 
from this sad sojourn, in which we had spent three melan- 
choly days, and to cause us with inflated sail, to cut the 
rippling ocean, for the isle of Samos — our pilot's house and 



LUDICROUS APPREHENSION, 



335 



business lay in Samos, and thither he was fully resolved to 
steer, without putting himself to the slightest pain, as to 
whether his passenger, whom he had pledged himself to 
land in Scio, should ever reach that isle or no ; it was a 
flagrant violation of good faith, but then the Greeks are 
famous for mendacity. During the voyage, I perceived, 
with no inconsiderable interest, the excessive terror enter- 
tained by these poor people for corsairs ; though our 
vessel was perfectly alone upon the open sea, they did not 
dare to speak a word above their breath, but observed, and 
made their passenger observe, as profound a silence, as if 
the enemy was at their elbow ; when it was indispensably 
necessary to speak, it was always in a low whispering 
tone, with many apprehensive looks over their shoulder, 
as if fearful that some bearded desperado was within 
ear shot. Though I was myself as largely endowed 
with the gift of cowardice, as these most veracious 
mariners, I could scarce refrain at first from laughter, 
at the panic terror that oppressed them in the open sea, 
in the utter absence of an enemy, as well as at the 
species of comedy it caused them to enact, but I became 
in time reconciled to it, and seemed to consider it a thing 
of course. 

We continued all this time to coast the isle of Scio, and 
I prayed to heaven to inspire our pilot with honesty 
enough to keep his word, and to land me in the town, or in 
someplace adjacent, from which we might easily transport 
ourselves to the place to which we had designed to go. 
At one time my wishes, I conceived, were heard, for a 
stiff breeze sprung up, which compelled our pilot to near 
the coast of Scio ; this wind which gave me so much plea- 



336 



ALBANIAN, 



sure died away unhappily, and, after a calm of half an 
hour's duration, during which our pilot regarded every 
point in the horizon for the expected breeze, a wind 
which was friendly to the rogue sprang up in spite of all 
my prayers, and growing stronger by degrees, wafted the 
Greek vessel towards Saraos, where she ran into a wretched 
haven, in which there was not a single habitation to be 
seen. We could perceive the island of Icaria from 
thence ; we had a whole day's leisure to consider it, as the 
sea was so much agitated that we could not disembark. 
Taking my little baggage the succeeding day, I dragged 
myself as well as I could to the adjacent village. I was 
told by the natives that this hamlet was a port, it is cer- 
tainly one of a peculiar species if it be, for the ocean 
forms no inlet in the land. They hawl their boats upon a 
shore, (which cannot be said to be indented) for they are 
apprehensive that if they left them in the sea in such a 
miserable road, the pirates would deprive them of these 
vessels. 

I met with an Albanian captain, who intended to depart 
with the first good wind ; — hoping we should have it the 
succeeding day, I spent little time in looking for a lodg- 
ing, but first having stowed away my baggage in the bark 
which was lying high and dry upon the sand, I considered 
it expedient to pass the night within its hollow womb ; 
you will easily imagine that it did not take much 
time to make my bed, and truth to tell, when the bed 
was made, it was very far from commodious. As the wind 
continued the succeeding day blowing constantly in the 
same direction, I entered a village called Carlovazi 9 to 
procure a lodging in the hamlet, or at least, some bread 



THE COOK. 



337 



but, unhappily for me, I could find neither one nor the 
other, nor for love nor for money ; it even cost me no 
small trouble to discover my Albanian. At length with 
much ado, I succeeded in unearthing this ingenious person, 
when I proceeded to acquaint him with the utter destitu- 
tion to which I was reduced. He directed me to one of 
his acquaintances, at whose house I contrived to make a 
slight repast, after which I found it imperative on me to 
return to my vessel, in which I passed the three suc- 
ceeding days and nights. At the termination of this 
period, when you might expect that I was beginning to 
warm to my new abode, I found my naval domicile per- 
fectly intolerable, and I began to be afflicted with a 
species of illness which might be attended with frightful 
consequences. On Sunday 3 after mass, I made such 
strenuous exertions, that they succeeded in hiring me a 
small apartment at a very costly rate, while an aged Su- 
namite volunteered to preside over and manage my 
kitchen ; this was a situation which required neither much 
labour nor much professional skill, on the part of the 
incumbent ; all that was ever wanted in this very humble 
kitchen was to cook a little rice mingled with oil, with 
now and then a little mallows. 

During my sojourn in Carlo vazi, I became acquainted 
with a caloyer, or religious of a Greek monastery, who 
was an Italian, from the city of Bologna. After having 
served in the Venetian army, he happened to get mar- 
ried in the town of Carlovazi, and when his wife, a 
female of the village, expired, he assumed the cowl in the 
monastery of Athos, from which he had recently emerged, 
to take care of a child which his marriage had bequeathed 
him. We met almost every evening. The culture of a 

Q 



338 



GREEK MONK* 



garden afforded him a livelihood : he brought me now 
and then a little salad as an offering. This monk was a 
man of much simplicity, and I was pleased to find him 
destitute of craft, as it enabled me to ascertain certain 
facts with which I wished to be acquainted. I had time 
enough to interrogate him, for the wind delayed our de- 
parture for fifteen days. 

Though I was by no means at my ease in the position 
which I endeavour to describe, my reflections were not 
wholly engrossed by my own reverses : I was grieved 
to see the melancholy situation of our passengers to Path- 
mos. Fifteen leagues was the space that separated them 
from their destination ; but they were entirely destitute 
of the means of transport — their patience and resigna- 
tion to the will of God were admirable. I was highly 
edified at so much virtue ; 'twas a lesson which I studied 
in my solitude, and by which I endeavoured to profit 9 

They pressed me, very anxiously, to go with them to 
their isle. I should see, they assured me, many things 
in Patmos which were worthy of attention ; for instance, 
the grotto or cave in which the Apocalypse was written 
by St. John. I should have been delighted to visit so 
respectable a monument, if the transit had not been so 
utterly impossible. But, excepting this cave and a mo- 
nastery of Caloyers, there is nothing to be seen in reality 
in Pathmos ; for Path mos is only an enormous rock, in- 
habited by these Cenobites, and some Christian families. 
The soil is exceedingly ungrateful : nothing w r hatever 
that supports human life is produced by the barren rock. 
The natives go over to the mainland to procure the com- 
monest supplies : they frequently engage as mariners on 
board ship, and on returning to the island, they bring 



PATHMOS. 



with them wherewithal to iive. My fellow-passengers 
were persons of this description. 

These worthy people bitterly complained of the Chris- 
tian corsairs, who, without any respect for a place so 
sacred, which was consecrated, in some measure, by the 
sojourn of an evangelist, had devastated the island more 
than once, not sparing the very altars, and treating as 
well the religious as the laity w r ith the most barbarous 
cruelty. They met with an additional misfortune in 8a- 
mos ; having hired a bark to carry them to Pathmos, an 
incident occurred which prevented their departure : the 
corsairs, whom they had seen so often in imagination, 
finally appeared in downright reality ; descending on a 
neighbouring town, which was only three leagues distant 
from the village in which we resided, the freebooters 
swept away every thing, even the women were not left 
behind, whom, having previously dishonoured, they kept 
in durance vile, with many menaces of perpetual expa- 
triation, unless they were ransomed to a considerable 
amount. This melancholy adventure caused me to be 
honored by a deputation of the most considerable inha- 
bitants of our village ; they imagined that my character 
would give me some authority? and that by speaking to 
the monsters I might deliver these Christian damsels 
from captivity. As it was a work of charity, I willingly 
consented, but I first endeavoured to impress the diffi- 
culties of such a negociation upon the minds of my con- 
stituents ; I could not answer for the success of such an 
embassy ; I told them as the captain was an Italian, while 
I was a native of France, that the majority of these ad- 
venturers were Mainotes, a licentious Christian people 
inhabiting the Morea, over whom their very chief had 



340 



DESCENT OF CORSAIRS. 



little authority, tliat failing as they did to fear God, that 
they should respect his minister was hardly possible ; 
that I was ready to depart nevertheless, that after all 
they might not be quite such impracticable persons as I 
thought, and that perhaps the Lord who holds the hearts 
of human beings in his hands, might give a benediction 
to my humble words. Satisfied with this response, they 
retired to consider as to what was most expedient. They 
were still deliberating, when a messenger arrived, panting 
and exhausted to inform them, that after having ruined 
the village, the pirates had sagaciously debarked their 
female prisoners, and that having plundered every thing 
worth pillaging, and landed their living cargo, and fairly 
run away from them, they had directed their adventurous 
barks seaward on another cruise in search of some place 
where they might likewise do evil. The unexpected re- 
treat of the marauders, I doubt not, delivered me from 
a disgraceful interview by stripping me of the character 
of an ambassador. Perhaps you are anxious to know 
how I occupied my time in this sequestered place during 
the fortnight that I spent here. Unacquainted as I was 
with the language of the country, and therefore unable 
to exercise my ministry, I passed the live long day in 
communion with St.Paul, whose divine epistles I perused; 
and when evening came and my caloyer came along with 
it, I conversed a considerable time with this native of 
Italy, who informed me of many facts, which I listened 
to with interest. 'Twas from him that I learned the 
situation in which Samos exists at present. The city 
which was known to the ancients by this name, and which 
was in former times the metropolis of the isle, is desig- 
nated now Megali K/iora, it stands upon the margin of 



THE CALOYER. 



341 



the sea, upon the island's orient shore. Here the me« 
tropolitan has his seat, and here resides the Turkish aga, 
who is commissioned to collect the dues of the Grand 
Signior. Marato Cavo is situated on its northern side, 
while Carlovazi, Vathi, and Necori, are discerned in 
the western quarter ; all these places lie upon the coast. 
The inland places are Platan o, Castagne, Arvanito, Cora 
and Fora. The mountains are inhabited by a colony 
of Albanians, who took refuge in these fastnesses about 
a century ago, but I could not ascertain the occasion of 
their flight. They are a pastoral people, and obtain their 
subsistence by rearing flocks, very nearly in the manner 
of the Arabs. 

In this island money is extremely rare, and when the 
Turk has once extracted 15,000 crowns, as he annually 
and unfailingly does, there is scarce a halfpenny to be 
seen throughout the isle ; meanwhile the quality of the 
soil, unlike that of the isle of Pathmos, is far from 
sterility. The fertility of Samos caused it to be an object 
of envy in ancient times, and attracted the armaments 
of various people, who sought to make themselves the 
masters of Samos. Its abundance gave rise to a proverb, 
which Strabo mentions, to the effect that the hens gave 
milk in Samos. The inhabitants invariably convert the 
larger section of their farms into vineyards, as the Ma- 
homedans levy no taxes upon vines, besides which they 
permit vineyards to descend to Christian heirs : such is 
not the case with ordinary farm lands ; excluding the 
enormous contributions which they annually derive from 
such lands, if the Christian, whose property they happen 
to be, have no male heirs when he relinquishes the world, 
the Turks take possession of his holding, and sell it to 



342 



WOODED MOUNTAINS, 



any one that pleases them.* You will doubtless ask me, 
why the Mahomedans make this difference between vine- 
yards and ordinary farm lands ; that holy horror which 
the Mahomedans who first possessed themselves of Samos, 
entertained for wine, is the origin of this difference ; 
they considered the lands upon which grapes were grown 
as accursed, and this prejudice has descended to their 
posterity: the Aboriginals think otherwise, they esteem 
an abundant vintage as the greatest of all temporal be- 
nedictions. Either the soil or the pursuits of the natives 
have suffered an extraordinary change since the time of 
Strabo, since he informs us that, in his days, Samos was 
unfortunate in wine, while the circumjacent islands w r ere 
prolific of the grape. Ex vino infelix est cum cceterce 
circumvicince vino optimo abundent. All the revenue 
which the islanders possess, is derived from wine ; they 
dispose of it in Scio and especially in Smyrna, where 
European vessels purchase many cargoes. The colour 
of their wine is deep, and it bears water well, but its 
flavour is not delicate. The rector of the village in which 
I resided treated me to some of a superior quality, but 
this excellent wine is rare. In France, they sell it for 
the wine of Scio, and our gourmands are sometimes the 
victims of the fraud. Their wine and a little silk con- 
stitute the commerce of the isle ; the corn, oil, and other 
necessaries which the isle produces, are only sufficient 
for the home consumption ; I was likewise informed, if I 
remember rightly, that wood for the construction of 

* Nothing is so characteristic of a nation as its laws ; under similar 
circumstances barbarians always make the same enactments, the laws 
enacted by the English " to check the growth of Popery'' and those 
of the Mahomedans to extinguish Christianity, are identically the 
same. T.A.P. 



IRREVERENT PRIESTS. 



343 



saiques and barks was exported from Samos ; this may 
really be the case, for you see the mountains covered with 
the finest trees, and such as are well calculated for such 
architecture. 

I have told you already that Samos is inhabited solely 
by Christians. Their ritual is Greek and they are all great 
fasters. They get through the lent with a few legumes. 
They do not use the liberty which other Greeks enjoy, 
that of seasoning these legumes with a little oil ; they 
only use their oil on Saturdays and Sundays, which are 
privileged days, when it is prohibited to fast. They are 
guided by a metropolitan whose revenue, which scarcely 
amounts to two hundred crowns, consists for the most 
only in voluntary offerings ; he annually receives five 
sous from every family, and the patriarch as many more : 
ten additional sous satisfy the other claims of the church, 
whether poor or rich they all owe the same sum, and no 
one can evade this obligation. As in every other district 
in the patriarchate, priests who are married cannot hear 
confessions, unless in the very greatest emergencies. 
This function is confided by the bishops only to certain 
Cenobites, who visit the hamlets and sequestered houses, 
who hear the confessions of such are desirous of ap- 
proaching the tribunal of penance. Confessions are ex- 
ceeding rare except upon these solemn festivals, from 
the absence of the spiritual father, as they term the con- 
fessor, and perhaps I may add from the absence of de- 
votion. 

One thing is worthy of compassion, which is the love 
these poor Greeks entertain for their religion, but unfor- 
tunately few of them observe the precepts of their faith, 
and nobody at all attains perfection. I went to their 



344 



DISORDERLY MONASTICS. 



churches on the sabbath days and festivals to exhort them 
by example, as I could not preach to them verbally. The 
excess of their irreverence is inconceivable : their prayers 
are a profanation of the house of God, rather than acts 
of piety ; they chatter, laugh and sing, and, what is still 
more scandalous, their priests may be seen in these irre- 
verent groups, indulging their hilarity as gracelessly as 
the rest. You scarce can see a sign of souls which are 
truly touched by heaven, or which are influenced by a 
sense of the nature of the sacred mysteries at which they 
assist ; notwithstanding this they call them, like ourselves ? 
tremendous mysteries, while they treat them with pro- 
found indignity ; their conduct is an absolute enigma, 
full of inconsistencies and incongruities ; they desecrate 
the churches and revere them, they are seldom seen to 
pass before the temples without profound inclinations of 
the person, the recitation of a prayer and several signings 
of the cross ; and such is their devotion that they some- 
times kiss the stones, and to these external tokens of 
respect an especial benediction, they imagine, is attached. 
The number of their monasteries amounts to five ; of 
the two dedicated to the Virgin Mary, one is called 
Panagia Megala ; three are dedicated to the honour of 
the cross, to St. George ; and to Elias, viz., Stauros? 
Age Elias, Age Georgies. The religious, to say the 
very least of them, are quite as much addicted to the 
culture of the earth as to their spiritual interests ; it 
would be well if their minds were cultivated like their 
farms. Science, whether sacred or profane, is carefully 
excluded from the cloister, and that not only in this isle but 
throughout Asia, where well informed persons are ex- 
tremely rare, and where the desire of information is 



THE PAPA'S LADY. 



345 



equally unusual. For my part, I was considered as an 
excommunicated wretch, or one who richly merited ex- 
communication. As they never have an opportunity of 
seeing us, they really take us for the monsters which the 
monks describe, and they implicitly believe in all their 
calumnies. Though well aware that I was a religious, 
and though living in the penitential time of lent, nothing 
could persuade them that I kept the fast : they had been 
previously informed that in lent, meat and eggs were 
eaten by the French ; luckily for me, the rector's lady 
asked of me an ointment to cure a burned child, I gave 
her the ointment and the child got well. In gratitude, the 
lady presented me with eggs ; my refusing to receive 
them excited her astonishment. She was edified at 
finding that I would not eat them, but much more edified 
to learn that charity induced me to do her such a service. 
Disinterestedness is such a novelty, that it makes a pro- 
found impression on their minds, when the natives of the 
Levant happen to encounter it. 

This pretendedly -heroic action did me the utmost 
honour in the village. Their prejudice began to wear 
away, but on the other hand I found my situation so 
extremely irksome, I began to be disgusted with it. I 
should have found sufficient occupation had I known the 
vulgar Greek a little better, so as to give instructions to 
the people, but I could scarcely utter three consecutive 
words. To have ears and not to hear, to have the 
organs of speech and yet be silent, is a situation of 
exceeding pain, the misery of which I have learned from 
experience. I had no resource but my solitary monk, 
but he passed all the day in the labours of the garden. 

But when he returned at the twilight hour, I made 

Q5 



346 



THE GARDENER. 



amends for the compulsory silence which I had observed 
all day by asking an infinity of questions. Amongst 
other interrogatories I enquired whether, when embracing 
the ritual of the Greeks preparatory to his marrying a 
female of the country, he had been asked to abjure the 
religion of the Catholics ? whether they had baptised or 
confirmed him a second time ? He assured me that 
nothing of the sort had ever been proposed to him 
when he had got married in the isle of Samos, or when 
he had assumed the cowl in Athos, and he added, " if it 
were proposed I should never have consented." I 
wished to become acquainted with the state of Athos, 
which the Greeks denominate the holy mountain, or 
Agicn Oras. He satisfied my curiosity in this regard. 
I confess that, previously to quitting France, I had read 
many narratives relating to this subject, but never had 
met any thing so copious in details as was the Caloyer's 
account ; and such was the Cenobite's ingenuous simplicity, 
that no one could suspect him of insincerity. 

Mount Athos is the famous mountain which Xerxes, 
king of Persia separated from the mainland by a straight 
which was fifteen hundred paces in extent, if Pliny 
may be credited. And such is the vast elevation of this 
mountain, that according to the same authority, in the 
summer solstice, its shadow falls upon the isle of 
Lemnos, of which the distance from Athos is eighty- 
seven miles. In reality, its altitude, as Father Loredano 
informed Riccioli, after having exactly measured it, is 
ten thousand paces in Italian measure. It elevates its 
summit above the clouds and winds ; no storm disturbs that 
region of serenity, insomuch that the letters which are 
traced upon the sand or ashes which lie upon its apex ? 



THE MONASTERY. 



347 



are found years subsequently perfectly unaltered and 
unchanged. I did not learn this from the Caloyer ; let 
me tell you — he had never had the curiosity to make 
experiments of this description. This mountain, or 
more accurately still, this chain of mountains, which 
composes a peninsula, which unites Macedonia and the 
sea, is inhabited by an entire nation of Greek religious. 
They had four and twenty monasteries upon it in former 
days, two of which are ruined, while twenty-two remain. 
The offices recited are of such excessive length, and the 
rigour of their fasts is so extreme, that their life may be 
considered as exceedingly austere. 

The three first days of lent are passed by the 
monastics with scarcely any food and with scarcely any 
drink, viz. the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the 
Quinquagesima. The kitchen, the coffer, the refectory, 
all are shut ; it is only at three o'clock on Wednesday 
that the monastics break their fast. The Caloyer 
confessed that all were not equally austere, that some 
laid up a store of victuals in their cells, with which they 
refreshed themselves during these three days. On the 
three last days of lent they are almost equally abstemious, 
and after having eaten upon Holy Thursday, 'tis 
Satnrday evening when they eat again. Wasted by 
the fast of the preceding lent, and bound, as they are, to 
remain longer in the choir, this conclusion of the 
penitential season is felt more severely than its com- 
mencement. Neither oil nor wine are permitted to be 
taken during any time in lent. In every week of the 
year, as well as during lent, Monday, Wednesday, and 
Friday are fast days, except, perhaps, in that paschal 
time that finishes at Pentecost. These are fa?ts which 



348 



:la trappe. 



their rule ordains, and however rigorous they may be, 
there are monks who are still more mortified than the 
rule requires. It is astonishing to see them support a 
life of such extreme austerity, even to the decrepitude 
of extreme old age. Summon up the memory of all 
that they suffer in La Trappe. In La Trappe there is 
nothing which is equivalent to this ; the climate, I think, 
and the temperament of the inhabitants, and habit 
likewise, must necessarily have a share in producing 
such phenomena. Alas, how much merit goes to loss, 
how many virtues are destroyed by the spirit of error 
and of schism ! 

The superiors of these monasteries are elective, the 
chapter chooses new ones every year: 'tis true, an 
authority of short duration which is always on the verge 
of expiring can seldom be an object of respect, but the 
Caloyer in power enforces his authority with so much 
vigour, and punishes delinquents so severely, that he 
uniformly causes himself to be obeyed. None but 
grievous faults are punished with imprisonment, but 
penance is inflicted for the slightest faults, and a 
penance too, which is certainly extraordinary. Laid 
upon his belly and his feet stripped bare, the person to 
be punished is beaten on his soles, on which many heavy 
blows are inflicted with a cudgel, and if he be mutinous 
and wishes to escape, the rebel is delivered to the secular 
authority, that is, he is given to the Turkish Aga, who 
instantaneously executes excellent justice by the hands 
of officials, whose experience and ability in handling the 
baton are perfectly unparalleled — monastic discipline is 
thus maintained with admirable order. The method, 
too, is most compendious, no chapter is called, no processes 



MONKS BASTINADOED. 



349 



are necessary, no sentence is pronounced, such formalities, 
in fact, are totally ignored. 

Sent by the Porte, and appointed by the Grand Signior, 
that tribute is levied by the Aga, which they annually 
wrench from these unfortunate monastics, and which is 
twenty thousand crowns a year in amount. It is not 
very long since this tribute first began, but my Caloyer 
could not tell me the occasion or the origin. He was 
well aware, however, of the energetic rigour with which 
the imposition was exacted, I can easily believe that this 
rigour is extreme — the Turks are, in fact, the most 
terrible of tax-gatherers. No people in the world are 
more interested. The following fact appears incredible, 
and yet its verity is incontestable. I have it from the 
best authority. Scio was the scene of the occurrence, 
Two Greeks appeared before the Cadi, a magistrate that 
may be considered as the mayor of Turkish cities. The 
documents and arguments which one of them possessed 
decided the question in his favour. He pleaded his cause 
with all the eloquence which the consciousness of right, 
and the feeling of self-interest can bestow on a declaimer, 
The assistants looked one another in the face, with 
glances which seemed to say the question was decided, 
aud that justice was clearly on the side of the de claim er. 
The plaintiff, however, ultimately ceased, when the 
defendant came forward with a certain swagger, and 
persons looked with wonder on the triumph in his eye, 
he did not care a maravedi for the logic of his enemy ; 
this defendant, coming forward, had nothing in his hand 
but a certain piece of paper on which nothing was 
inscribed, but then, many golden coins were enveloped 
in this paper. Without losing any time in unnecessary 



330 QUESTING FRIAKS. 

eloquence ? he went instantaneously to work. Presenting 
the Cadi with the paper full of gold, Signior, said he, 
all that my adversary says is false, this is the evidence 
that proves it ; my lord these are my witnesses, examine 
them yourself. The magistrate receives the paper, he 
developes it upon the bench : counting the coin into the 
hollow of his hand, he turns to the plaintiff. My friend, 
he exclaims, your arguments are excellent ; your 
adversary, however, has got forty witnesses which give 
evidence against you, and I must of necessity decide 
against you unless you furnish witnesses as many and as 
good. The plaintiff was equally unwilling and unable 
to comply with the wishes Gf the judge, and the forty 
sequins triumphed over justice. You must pardon this 
digression. I intend to go back and converse with the 
Caloyer about the Aga, who compels the Cenobites to 
pay a tribute, and from whose iron gripe nothing can 
extricate them. They agree to give him so much food 
and silver every week, and his protection can be 
purchased at no other price. In order to support these 
multiplied expences, certain of the friars are sent upon 
the quest, not only to the isles of Greece, but to 
Constantinople and to Muscovy. The persons selected 
for this mission are the most intelligent, they are the 
persons possessed of the easiest address. But these 
missions are the ruin of monastic discipline. Intercourse 
with seculars is dangerous to monks, and purity of mind, 
that virgin flower which only flourishes in solitude, is 
injured by removal, is tarnished by exposure ; full of 
what they have seen in that illusive theatre, the world ? 
they are seldom such Caloyers on re-entering their cell, 
as they were when they stooped beneath its lintel for 



DISORDERS IN THE MONASTERY. 351 

departure. They willingly confess that it does them an 
injury, and necessity, we know, is the cause of this 
exposure to the miseries and dangers which follow in 
the train of mental dissipation. When the brothers, 
who are questers, succeed in their vocation, they look 
upon themselves as necessary persons, they appreciate 
their own importance, and overbearing to their brethren 
and saucy to superiors, are managed by caresses and 
fondled out of interest. 

When Cenobites are poor, they cannot keep their vow 
of poverty ; failing to furnish him with certain articles 
the community, of course, must allow the individual to 
gather money from his own resources to purchase 
raiment and many things besides. The house in which 
he dies inherits what he hoards. The monastery becomes 
his heir. Individuals have left a thousand crowns and 
double the amount in many instances, which the pro- 
curator never fails to seize on the moment he is dead, in 
the name of the community, The men who leave the 
largest legacies are such as possess a piece of land which 
is rented from the monastery, and of which they are 
proprietors for life, of which they are permitted to 
appropriate the produce, only substracting the sum which 
the monastery requires. 

You do not see among these Greek religious that 
perfect uniformity which is so exceedingly desirable in 
such societies. Such as give money to the monastery 
on entering religion, may live precisely as they please. 
They are not obliged to conform to the regular obser- 
vances with the same severity as those who had been 
poor. They procure dispensations from assisting at the 
offices, above all, when the offices are long, with great 



352 



SCHISMATICS. 



facility ; in a word, they give themselves liberties and 
relaxations which would not be permitted to the others, 
and it would seem as if their epithet of benefactor, 
which is derived from the donation they have given, 
prevents the spiritual benefit which should accrue from 
their secluded situation. These exemptions, I suspect, 
are not ratified by heaven. In this order, on Mount 
Athos, there are artizans of all descriptions, to whom 
their brethren repair to purchase whatever they require. 
The artizans are generally outside the monasteries — they 
occupy the place where the Aga has his dwelling, there 
they have their shops, and there these mechanics have a 
market twice a-week. As in Christian countries the 
monasteries have bells ; they obtain this permission with 
facility ; in every imaginable instance the Turks are the 
most accommodating of mankind, if you second your 
petition with a bribe. Our European travellers, who 
love exagerations, for even amongst travellers there are 
characters of this kind ! increase these religious to the 
number of twelve thousand. I took them on their word ; 
my Caloyer, however, who was well informed, entirely 
undeceived me. The Cenobites of Athos are not half 
so numerous, and three or four thousand are their 
utmost number, which is exceedingly considerable, as two, 
hundred in a monastery make a large community. 

These formidable, nay, these indefatigable faster s are 
far from being the humblest of the human kind ; when 
their blood is up, their eyes flash fire at the slightest con- 
tradiction, and they overwhelm one another absolutely 
with imprecations, a bad harvest to you, or may you be 
anathema! Such are their ordinary salutations when 
malignity inspires them. At times the auesters, accord- 



SCHISMATICS. 



353 



ing to my monk's account, give rise to scandals in their 
expeditions, by shameful weaknesses, and in order to 
escape the rigorous chastisements which would inevi* 
tably follow such public derelictions, they reduce their 
brethren to bankruptcy, they apostatise and fly to foreign 
lands. Scenes like this, the Caloyer continued, are never 
to be seen in Monte Santo ; they take infallible measures 
to prevent such lapses in the holy mountain, where a 
female foot has never pressed the sward. He was not 
sufficiently intimate with architecture to give me a good 
description of the churches, however he knew his religion 
very well, and 'twas that which interested me the most. 
I exhibited a project which our fathers had conceived — 
they wished to establish themselves in Monte Santo, to 
keep a school said I to the Caloyer, and to teach theology 
and written Greek, to educate Caloyers in the principles 
of Rome, who, when risen to authority, would vindicate 
the truth. Nought could be more efficacious for eradi- 
cating schism, answered the Caloyer. They follow the 
opinions of their pastors here with blind credulity. 
Their papas, he continued, and especially their monks 
whose words derive weight from their austerities, and 
the frightful macerations of the flesh which they observe, 
confer credit on erroneous doctrine. People are un- 
willing to believe that men who live so well can think 
so badly. If Monte Santo were subdued, the spiritual 
conquest of the whole of Greece would doubtless follow 
as a consequence. The project, I admit, is admirable, 
in the execution is the difficulty, for the missioners 
entrusted with the execution should be quite as formi- 
dable fasters as the Greeks, a faculty, indeed, of very 
rare occurrence. Oh, that is no impediment said I to 



354 



CONVERSATIONS WITH A CALOYEK. 



the Caloyer ; our fathers in the missions of Malabar live 
like the penitents of India, hunger has no horror for a 
man who is truly apostolic, his zeal can conquer his 
reluctant nature, making him all things to all men. 
Permitting that to pass, continued my Caloyer, can you 
conquer the aversion which the Greeks have for you ? 
You cannot well imagine the excess to which it rises, and 
how malignant are the glances w r ith which you are 
regarded. The Greeks have a book which they call the 
Monocanons, it is their only casuist, and it appears to be 
to them a second gospel. They forbid the laity to read 
this book, in order to make it more respectable, and its 
contents are only learned through the medium of the 
clergy. I have had a copy in my hands, I chanced upon 
a chapter whose title was as follows, Ilepi twv <f>p#v%wv 
%cli AdTLV^'h that is, " concerning the Latins and the 
Franks." I perused the chapter with exceeding interest, 
its substance is indelibly imprinted in my memory. It 
described us as inhuman wolves, which is the gentlest 
epithet the author gives us. He propounds, as a leading 
principle, that those who recognise the pope's supremacy 
have been excluded from the church of Christ as well as 
from apostolical tradition, living like barbarians without 
any law — these are his very words. Excluding the 
common accusation of adding to the Credo that the third 
person in the Trinity proceeds from the Father and the 
Son, of using unleavened bread upon our altars, he says 
that our Saviour consecrated leavened bread, and having 
given some to Judas ; Iscariot went out, and, repairing 
to the Jews, exhibited the bread. Thus they justify 
the traitor and condemn our blessed Lord, as one who 
violated the Mosaic institution. It accuses the Catholics 



CONVERSATIONS. 



355 



as guilty of Nes to nanism, in never calling Mary mother 
of God, of giving her the epithet of Holy Mary, and 
refusing her a higher title. We fast upon Saturdays 
according to this author, and when Christmas -day falls 
upon a Saturday, such is our respect for Saturday, that 
we fast upon this feast of the nativity. He accuses us 
of failing to commence the Quarantania till Wednedsay of 
the Quinquagesima, and of not singing alleluia in lent, of 
not anointing sinners previously to giving them com- 
munion, of refusing to take subjects from the martyr- 
ology for pictorial embellishments of churches ; thus 
painting nothing but the figure of the cross, of shaving 
our priests and not suffering them to marry. There 
were other accusations in this portion of the volume, but 
the copy which I had was injured here — I have never 
learned the remainder. I confess that this book appeared 
a novelty to me. It surprises me to think that the 
learned Allatius, who has written treatises of so much 
beauty on the heresies contained in the writings of the 
Greeks, should say nothing of the Monocanons. He had 
not discovered this impoisoned fountain, perhaps, with 
the virus of which all the Greeks are imbued. With 
prejudices such as these, continued my caloyer, think 
you that the monks will ever listen to you. I answered 
that the obstacle was not invincible, established amongst 
and living in the midst of them, we should demonstrate 
the falsehood of these suppositions, the injustice of these 
accusations. 'T would be totally in vain ! continued my 
caloyer, in vain would you endeavour, by irrefragible 
reasons, to overturn practices so ancient and so cherished. 
In vain would you press them for an answer to your 
arguments. They would treat you to an apothegm in 



356 CONVERSATION WITH A CALOYER. 

place of a reply, viz. our law enjoins what you object to. 
They attach themselves to this with unconquerable 
obstinacy. I heard from veteran caloyers, that one of 
your society and Rhodino, a native of the isle of Cyprus , 
made a similar attempt to the one which you describe- 
They met them with these propositions. Our young 
caloyers become learned, would despise the old and 
ignorant. Enamoured of their studies, they would never 
dig the ground nor stoop to servile toils. Ambition 
would inflame their youthful hearts ; relinquishing their 
cells, they would go into the world for the purpose of 
becoming bishops, envy would insinuate itself amongst 
them, the brothers occupied in the labours of the field 
would be jealous of the ease in which the scholars lived. 

There was much plausibility in these objections, and 
I thought I recognised, in such replies, the spirit and the 
style of irregular communities, where the naissant merit 
of the young caloyer is invariably repressed by ignorance 
in power, lest contempt should be followed by the loss of 
its authority. They also added upon this occasion, con- 
tinued the caloyer, that did they give admission to 
religious Franks, 'twould render them suspicious to the 
Grand Signior, and embroil them with the Czars of 
Muscovy, whose protection 'twas their interest to culti- 
vate. These replies shut the mouths of the projectors? 
and the project came to nought. 

' Have they got no object of inferior veneration, no relic 
or image of particular esteem?" " Yes, an image of our 
lady, which, according to tradition, the image-breakers 
flung into the sea : which was borne by the ocean from 
Constantinople, and hurried by the surge into the 
neighbourhood of Athos, when Gabriel, an Eremite, 



CALOYERS. 



357 



conveyed it to the church. Besides they keep the head, 
in the monastery of Laura, of the venerated Michael of 
Smnaze. This head has got the faculty, the schismatics 
declare, of banishing those scourges of the vineyard, and 
the farm caterpillars, locusts, &c. When the islanders of 
Rhodes were afflicted by the locusts, they sent a solemn 
deputation to request the head ; having bore the borrowed 
relic in procession round their lands, the locusts disap- 
peared to the wonder of the Mussulmans. The Waiwode 
of Wallachia made a similar request, which was followed 
by a similar phenomenon. He gave money to the 
monastery to elevate a church in honor of this Thauma- 
turgus. This is all that I could draw from my amiable 
caloyer, and of this I do assure you I was getting very 
weary. 

You may wish to learn something of those famous 
vases, which, on the festivals of princes, and the altars 
of the gods, gave celebrity to Samos in anterior times. 
The argillaceous substance is no longer found in Samos, 
to which the classic hand of genius gave such peerless 
forms. The potter's wheel is broken in the isle of Samos, 
they no longer make a vessel of the coarsest clay. The 
natives of this island who were in the Dardanelles, brought 
vessels for their friends and even for to trade in, and 
were there potteries in Samos such provision would be 
vain. Certain ancient inscriptions are discovered in the 
isle, and some relics of a temple which the Argonauts 
erected to the goddess Juno. This queen of the deities 
of fable, as nobody can fail to know, not only was a 
native of the isle of Samos, but was wedded there to 
Jupiter, where oblations in her honor were more frequent 
than elsewhere. Poetry has celebrated Samos. 'Twas 



358 



ANTIQUE VASES. 



here that Bacchus slew the Amazons, who, flying from 
Ephesus, sought a refuge in the isle. In Samos, Poly- 
crates reigned, said to be the happiest of human kind. 
He bragged of his felicity, he said he was superior to 
adverse fortune, and that the arrows of adversity could 
never reach him. He was taught the melancholy lesson, 
that full and perfect happiness is never an inhabitant of 
earth. He was imprisoned by a Persian satrap, who 
treated him with much cruelty, and caused him to be 
hung. The sovereign of Egypt seems to have foreseen 
these sad reverses. Hearing somebody describing this 
potentate's felicity — " Since his life is so felicitous, his 
death cannot be happy/' said the prescient monarch. 
This island is respected as the birth-place of Pythagoras, 
as well of Creophilas by whom Homer was instructed. 

We were fifteen days in Samos — the wind ultimately 
changed, and the mariners once more dragged their 
shallops down the beach. I was present at a ceremony 
to which I was a stranger. Priests approached the 
vessels on the margin of the sea, and bearing holy water, 
and with incense in their hands, they gave their benedic- 
tion to these weather beaten boats. The priests were 
on the shore, the ceremony done, and the sun going 
down as the vessels took the wind. We durst not sail 
in daylight lest the pirates should perceive us. We made 
sail throughout the night, which was extremely wild and 
wintery. We reached the offing of a port in Scio, 
though the wind had veered. Our fathers, to whom I 
had been long announced, considered me as lost. Their 
joy upon beholding me was perfectly exstatic. Obliged 
to bid them farewell, I embarked on board a galley of 
the Grand Signior. 'Twas evening when I entered— I 



THE PERSIANS. 



859 



was civilly received. The Turks always treat our 
missionaries so, when they pass from isle to isle, or from 
islands to the mainland. They always take us willingly on 
board their gallies ; they shew us many marks of kind- 
ness, and give us unrestricted liberty in our efforts to 
inform and console the slaves. It was two, ante meridian, 
when our bark got under weigh, and at nine o'clock our 
sails were being furled before Smyrna. My coming had 
been previously announced by an epistle, and yet they 
were surprised to see me. My reception was the kindest 
you can well conceive. 

On the 18th of April I entered Smyrna, where I was 
informed that a caravan was destined to depart for 
Aleppo on the thirteenth of May. I took advantage of 
the opportunity. There were certain residents of 
Smyrna, who were correspondents of my friends in 
Aleppo, who united me with some Armenian merchants 
to whom I was sedulously recommended ; they could not 
have provided me with better company. They were 
amiable people, by whom civilities and services were 
lavished in the journey on your undeserving servant. 
They were natives of Erivan, in Persia, for the most 
part. I was surprised to see how cheaply they travel in 
the caravan : eight crowns was the money that the 
muletier received as the hire of his mule for four and 
thirty days. I, however, gave him ten, that he might 
take a little care of me. I remarked that this gratuity 
excited his affection. A hundred persons composed the 
caravan, but no one knew the languages with which I 
was acquainted. There w T as nothing heard on any side 
but Turkish and Armenian. I was compelled to be as 
silent as aCapuchin, though perfectly willing tobe eloquent. 



360 



GALLEY SLAVES. 



I began to apprehend that informer times I had verbally 
offended heaven, and that this was the penitence ap- 
pointed me. Two or three Mahometans who understood 
the Arabic joined us in the journey ; I found myself a 
little more at ease ; I became acquainted with one of 
them ; this companion of my way was very kind to me, 
he served me as a purchaser whenever I required it. 

In life in a caravan there is great frugality ; heated 
food is eaten only once a dry — this good repast consists 
of half cooked rice, which is gilded with a little butter* 
When we get a bit of meat we boil it, and the water is 
made use of to prepare the rice : but this is considered as 
a sumptuous meal. The element we meet with in the 
desert springs is our ordinary beverage. We sleep upon 
the desert in the open air, as near as may be to «ome 
spring or river. A little carpet spread upon the ground 
and patience, and your mantle to shield you from the 
rain, constitute your bed and bedding. When we 
halted in the day time, in the ardour of the sun, I made 
me a pavilion with two carpets and a pole. Despite its 
inconvenience and my weakly constitution, I enjoyed 
excellent health in my journey to Aleppo. 

We were brought to Pouerbacha by the first day's 
march, which is only at six miles distance from the city 
we departed from. The transit was but short, it was but 
a preparation for our plunge into the desert. The cara- 
van assembled here. Cranes were sitting on their nests, 
upon trees in the vicinity. This foolish-looking bird, 
looks ridiculously silly from the mode in which it sits, 
more without the nest than in it. Smiling as I looked 
upon these feathered simpletons, I felt my heart dilate as I 
stood beneath the tree, for I remembered the French proverb 



THE CARAVAN. 



361 



I so often heard at home, and confessed, while looking 
upward, that the apothegm was true. Little birds came 
flying round these doltish cranes in cheerly congregations, 
screaming and chattering, and pecking at their nests, 
the size of which is great, and which are very well con- 
structed of interwoven rods, though the builder looks so 
stupid. The attraction they discovered in these inter- 
woven nests I could never well divine, but they seemed 
to be a source of inexhaustible amusement, producing the 
greatest possible hilarity among the little birds, while the 
crane seemed sadly at a loss to see the joke, but if utterly 
unable to participate in so much mirth, she offered not 
the slightest opposition to their pleasures. 

Our march was only of eight hours upon the second 
day, and the caravan halted before noon-ticle. Annually 
in spring it is the custom of the country to put the horses 
and mules to grass for a vernal month. The caravan 
conductors who travel during spring, being unwilling to 
deprive their cattle altogether of their right to graze, are 
accustomed to curtail their marches, in order that the 
creatures may have time to pasture ; and thus they avoid 
the expense of buying barley, with which they should be 
otherwise obliged to furnish them. Barley, I reiterate, 
as oats are rarely or never to be seen in this country, and 
the little that you meet with is destitute of grain. To- 
day we passed a little river, or rather a stream of consi- 
derable size, whose windings were innumerable ; the name 
of this river is the Nif : I took it for the Meander, how- 
ever I was wrong. 

We advanced two leagues, and called a halt upon our 
third day's march, and encamped in the vicinity of Dorgot 
In this place we passed the remainder of the day, ana 

R 



362 



PERU OF THE ROMANS. 



during the succeeding day we were likewise stationary 
here, waiting for some inhabitants of Thyatire, whose 
accession would increase our caravan. We did not want 
for grass, though no pasturage existed ; as when the peo- 
ple of the town perceived us coming, they brought a suf- 
ficiency for sale. During this delay, I proceeded to the 
town of Dorgot for the purpose of procuring medals; they 
presented me with some which were destitute of value. 
And yet medals should be found, I feel persuaded, in 
these ruined countries of Asia Minor in considerable 
quantities. 'Twas the Peru of the pagan Romans, the 
proconsulship of which was bought with gold, as a very 
ready means to realise a fortune ; the money and the 
medals of the ancient Romans were thus in constant cur- 
rency in Asia Minor, Neither English or Venetians, 
nor learned men from France have come hither to inquire 
for the relics of antiquity : hence it is a virgin soil which 
cannot be explored in vain. 

Mussulmen alone inhabit Dorgot, the Christians and 
the Jews are only passengers, whose object in visiting 
the town is purely commercial. Thus the Christians have 
no church, nor the Israelites a synagogue. The first, 
who are all of the Armenian rite, reside in one of those 
extensive buildings which are designated kans. They 
support a priest in this place, in order to possess his spi- 
ritual help in cases of necessity or death. They say their 
prayers in their apartments privately, as mass is never 
said for the Armenians except in consecrated churches, 
and in this place they do not keep the blessed sacrament. 
The sacrament is brought from Smyrna by a priest in the 
paschal season, as well as when viaticum is wanted for the 
dvhig. This distance is a source of many inconveniencies 



ELOQUENT GESTICULATION. 



363 



Many kindnesses were conferred on me by these worthy 
Armenians, I endeavoured to express my gratitude by 
the most eloquent gesticulations that my uninventive 
brain could possibly devise. I was delighted at their 
diligence in praying for the dead ; one of their priests 
the evening we arrived, assembled the most devotional 
for the purpose of praying in a churchyard, which was 
purchased from the Turks at a very costly rate, and 
whose possession is insured by a Kaatif Scherif of the 
Grand Signior, a title which is given to commandments 
which happen to be signed by that sovereign's hand. 

A considerable town which is named Magnesia, in 
which the Pacha has his residence, stands at four leagues 
distance to the north of Dorgot, while about a league 
from its southren side is situated Thyatira, which now 
a days is called Ak Plissar. 

In the Apocalypse the bishop of this city is upbraided 
with his weakness, in failing to reprimand with authori- 
tative firmness the crimes and debauches of a certain 
jezabel. Lydia, that virtuous trafficker in purple, con- 
verted by St. Paul, was a native of this town. A mer- 
chant who had recently arrived from Thyatira, told me 
that the city was considerable still, but of moderate 
extent. 

The caravan advanced to the celebrated city of Sardis, 
which was anciently the capital of Lydia, and the prin- 
cipal seat of the monarchy of Croesus ; 'tis nothing but 
a village now. It appears from such relics as are unde- 
stroyed, that it was anciently a city of extraordinary 
grandeur, of vast extent and of unusual magnificence 
I was fervidly desirous of visiting the ruins for the pur- 
pose of procuring medals, and to contemplate the relics 



364 



MULES AND CRANES. 



of departed splendour, and peruse the inscriptions, 
which are doubtless rare ; the muleteers the masters 
now, felt the greatest possible desire on their side to 
drive their cattle to a plenteous pasture, which they were 
certain of discovering beside the stream, to gratify the 
palates of the brutes was a more important object than a 
scholar's curiosity. 

The succeeding day we saw the town of Alia Slier 
upon our route ; I shrewdly suspect that this town is a 
common and appointed rendezvous for all the cranes of 
the created universe ; every window, wall and house top 
was covered with these birds. Having quitted Alia 
Sher or the ancient Philadelphia, we proceeded to the 
river Ghiades, which I took for the Meander, but in this 
I was mistaken, for the latter is now a days the Moindre : 
the water of the first is ill to drink, and it was worse 
than usual at this time, as myriads of locusts were lying 
in the stream, which after spreading desolation through 
the neighbouring country had rushed in the river and 
were drowned. These creatures would utterly destroy 
the country were it not for the providence of nature, which 
supplies an antidote for these destroyers so invincible to 
man and yet so mean : I have seen dark and gloomy 
clouds of them ere now, through which the sun could 
shine only with difficulty, as if his struggling light were 
labouring under an eclipse ; riding through the air in 
^error. They consumed all the grass that year, and left 
the country brown and bare, all the leaves of the trees, even 
those of the olives were destroyed ; millions came to 
being from their eggs and completed the destruction of 
whatever had been spared by their predecessors. 



THE LOCUSTS. 



365 



The antidote consists in a species of birds which come 
frsm the direction in which Persia lies, visiting the 
country from time to time, with a cry which is somewhat 
like the king-fishers ; they quickly put the locusts into 
great confusion, and passing through their hosts like can- 
non-balls, they swallow and digest them with astonishing 
celerity. Persons are despatched to a fountain in the 
country from which these birds migrate, who return with 
some of its pellucid water, and this vessel full of water is 
placed upon a lull near such oriental cities as Aleppo and 
Damascus. The birds always follow this beloved lymph, 
and remain near the city till the water is exhausted. 

About five-and-twenty years ago, the locusts paid a 
visit to the city of Aleppo, whereupon the Turks obliged 
the Christians and Jews to join in a procession to avert 
the scourge. The Mahometans went first in the order of 
the march, carrying their Koran and intonating songs in 
a manner which resembled howling. The priests of Chris- 
tianity succeeded, with the gospel, with relics, and the 
cross, praying in Armenian, $yriac,or Greek, and having 
copes upon their persons. The Hebrews were last, with 
their peiitateuch,or tora, singing in a manner not remark- 
able for harmony. The choirs kept asunder to avoid ca- 
cophony. But this beautiful arrangement was totally 
disordered, for jealousy interfered to spoil the festival. 
In direct contradiction to our notions of processions, the 
Jews conceived the tail was not an honorable place. They 
yielded to the Turks with great good will, because, like 
the lion in the fable, they were strong ; but they deemed 
themselves insulted when put behind the Christians, and 
with the latter they forcibly endeavoured to exchange 

places. The Christians considered it their duty to pre- 

r 3 



366 



THE FOUNTAIN AND THE BIRDS. 



serve their precedence. The Christians and the Jews 
were coming rapidly to blows, when the Mussulmans came 
down on the them, and fined them both, and compelled 
them to observe the first arrangement. They scarcely 
could anticipate a blessing from such piety. They con- 
fided in the water rather than in this procession; they sent 
persons to procure it, obtained it, stirred it, the birds ap- 
peared, and those winged destroyers rid them of the 
plague. These birds are denominated zemarmars. We 
ourselves had the pleasure of seeing them arrive in wel- 
come flocks, but did not see their execution, inasmuch as 
it was evening when they came, and we departed before 
dawn. 

We were traversing agreeable and fertile plains since 
ever we left Smyrna, but we entered upon mountains 
now where the roads were very difficult. We descended 
the succeeding day, into meadows which were finer stilh 
I saw many Greek inscriptions as I passed, but our lea- 
ders went too rapidly to suffer me to read them : from the 
little I cGuld see, I conceived them to be epitaphs. The 
ninth day brought us to a little mountain, whose sides and 
summit were enveloped by a wood, and the passage by 
whose foot was considered very dangerous. Caravans 
have frequently been plundered here. ? Tis known by the 
name of Hamamelou bogaz, which means the narrow pas- 
sage of Hamamelou. Fire-arms were shouldered by the 
members of the caravan ; the frequent fire of carbines 
accompanied our march, to let the robbers know, were 
there any within hearing, the folly of offending such 
warriors as we, and that we did not care a fig for them 
The bearing of our caravan was gallant and audacious } 



ROBBERS. 



367 



we did not shew the slightest sign of fear, for our number 
was two hundred, and they were only ten, according to 
report. After this bravado, we encamped beside a stream- 
let, honored, like the others, with the title of river, and 
whose beauty is unrivalled. A little caravan of camel- 
drivers speedily approached us. I learned from these 
people a new way of baking bread. Certain of the tra- 
vellers commence by making dough, and, though destitute 
of ovens, they succeed in making bread, and which they 
are very expeditious in preparing. The paste being made 
and diligently kneaded, a little piece is taken, which they 
flatten with the hand ; they spread it on an iron plate, 
and under this they place some burning coals. When 
the cake is baked on one side, they lay it on the other. 
This bread is very pliable, and bends what way you wish. 
Meat, cheese, and eggs can be readily w r rapped up in it s 
These cakes are employed instead of plates or dishes, and 
they even wipe their hands in them for want of towels. 
You consider this as monstrous ; in France it would ex- 
cite disgust, but I assure you in a caravan it is perfectly 
excellent. Though living with Armenian merchants, the 
viands I consumed were of little better quality, yet we 
frequently confessed, while discussing such victuals, that 
their flavour was delightful. The broken bread is gather- 
ed when a meal is done. A species of milk which they 
designated laban, is purchased on the first occasion ; 'tis 
diluted in a vessel (which is tinned inside,) with a quan- 
tity of water, which is equal to the milk ; the greasy bits 
of bread, more than half of which are mouldy, are min- 
gled with the milk : this constitutes a most refreshing 
potage, which is eaten with an appetite that is only seen 



368 



ROBBERS EMPALLED. 



in caravans — so true it is, that hunger is the best of sauces. 
Rice is never boiled in broth, 'tis seethed in boiling water 
till it swells ; this water is withdrawn as soon as it is 
sodden. When butter, oil, or grease is poured upon the 
rice, they put it by to soak with a slice or two of onion, 
when it makes a most delicious dish which glories in the 
name of pilau. It appears upon the tables of the nobles 
of the land, and even on the table of the Grand Signior, 
but it is seasoned with more delicacy I suspect, and the 
process is more clean than ours in the caravan, but it can- 
not be consumed with greater pleasure, or eaten with a 
more indefatigable appetite. Do you not consider this a 
little sensual ? 

We came to Balmamont upon the twelfth day, a rich 
timar or military benefice belonging to the favorite of 
the Grand Signior. Here we found a fine meadow and 
abundant water, and here we continued the succeeding 
day, and the field was submitted to our animals' discre- 
tion, at somewhat like a penny for each mule. We came 
to a village on the sixteenth day, called Capicadoukam, 
in which four or five robbers were impalled ; such another 
sight I have never seen, 'twas horrible ! most horrible ! 
and I shudder at its recollection, each of them was 
hanging on his stake with which he was skewered like a 
fowl. In some of them it issued at the back, while in 
others it protruded at the collar-bone, though the bowels, 
and the diaphragm are broken by the stake when driven 
through the human sufferer ; they live upon the stake 
two days sometimes, and 'tis said that after all, these 
sufferers complain of little except thirst, which is like- 
wise said of those who expire upon the wheel. 



BIRDS OF PREY. 



369 



But here we encountered a more pleasant spectacle, 
presented by a caravan which came from Egypt, which 
carried to the Grand Signior " the treasure of the birds 
of prey 'tis the title of the tribute which is annually 
offered by that celebrated province to the pleasures of its 
prince. Gazing on the cavalcade, the quantity excited 
my astonishment ; a single individual mounted on a mule 
contrived to carry four or five ; they stood upon his fist, 
his arms and his shoulders. The sangiac or paramount 
person of the caravan, was hidden in a palanquin and 
followed and preceded by his servants ; a moor upon a 
lofty camel struck as he rode before the litter, slowly 
and solemnly a kettle drum or tymbal, a distinction which 
the nobles of the Grand Signior assume on marches, as 
a mark of honour. 

Thence we proceeded to Ladik, which is one of the 
ancient Laodicees. The Greek inscriptions seen upon 
the walls, the columns, and the marble panels scat- 
tered here and there and overturned, prove that this 
city was considerable, anciently ; the only thing that 
has conferred notoriety upon it in modern times, is the 
apostacy of its inhabitants. Its inhabitants were Christians 
forty years ago, when one fine day, or rather one miserable 
day, they all simultaneously agreed to renounce their 
religion and become Mahomedans ; only two or three 
families continued firm in the general defection. 

I saw nothing very curious in Caraponger, but now 
we were coming to Iconium ; I was very solicitous 
to see a city celebrated in the Acts of the Apostles. Our 
caravan avoided the city of Iconium, to escape that 
tribute they require of Christians who sojourn in a city 
for a single day ; we might by entering expose ourselves 



370 



FREDERICK THE CRUSADER. 



besides, to some avany, as a caravan as numerous as 
ours would awaken the cupidity of Turkish ministers. 
We traversed difficult and frightful mountains and formi- 
dable vallies on the 25th, and we came to a river on the 
26th, the " river of the forty passages" which we had 
to ford, I forget how many times ; herkeakir is its 
Turkish name, which signifies the forty passages. We 
afterwards went up a lofty mountain from which we des- 
cended by the opposite declivity down a melancholy naked 
valley, entirely overspread with rocks and stones. 

After having passed the river Cydnus, to which the 
danger of the splendid Greek who bathed in its classic 
waters and the death of Frederic the emperor, have 
given notoriety, we came to Adana on the 28th; 'tis a 
handsome city with considerable commerce, especially 
in wax, in silk, and cotton. 

We passed the Geihoun upon the 29th, a river that 
was anciently the Sarus ; we descended a mountain be- 
longing to Mount Taurus ; we encountered an antique 
portal which is called Caraulac Capi, in a very narrow 
passage at the mountain's foot ; it is one of those gates 
for which Cilicia is so famous, and one can never enter 
Syria on the land side save and except by one or other 
of those gates ; a fort would arrest the strongest 
armies if it were erected here. At a little distance from 
this portal we came to a river called the Pay as, where 
the Greeks and the Maronites have each a church, the 
templ$ of the Maronites was borrowed by Armenians, 
who being richer than the real owners, they almost mo- 
nopolised the church. We proceeded about live miles 
farther and encamped upon a marshy plain, very near 
a castle that stands upon the side of a very lofty moun- 



GODFREY OF BOUILLON. 



371 



tain which reigns along the sea ; I quitted the caravan 
in this place, and as it is only two leagues to Alexandretta, 
I reached it in the evening. 

Alexandretta, which is called Scanderona by the 
Turks, was nothing but a heap of miserable huts about 
fifty years ago. Having rendered it a port to the city of 
Aleppo, they built upon the precincts and rendered it 
extensive. England, France and Venice have vice-consuls 
in the town, w T here the French have a very handsome 
church. This was the scene of Alexander's triumph, 
'twas here that he encountered Darius, and the place 
owes its name to that memorable day. A fort is discerned 
in the country adjacent, and 'tis thought from the arms 
of Lorraine on the wall, that Godfrey of Bouillon was 
the builder. A pacha began to build a fortress here to 
defend himself against the pirates, as he said, but the 
Porte not approving of his project, he was immediately 
obliged to pull it down. The air is insalubrious in Alex- 
andretta, and you scarcely can reside in it a single day 
without experiencing its ill effects ; many men are carried 
to the grave on the sixth or seventh day of their arrival, 
and fevers of a species unknown in Europe prey upon 
their frame for months together if they happen to survive 
the first attack, and their original complexion can never be 
restored. There are persons who become accustomed to the 
climate, but old men are never to be seen ; but so long as you 
sojourn in a vessel on the sea your health will continue 
unaffected. Pigeons are employed in this place of a 
kind which originally came from Bagdad, to carry our 
merchants' letters to Aleppo— the most ready and most 
rapid envoys in the universe ; in three hours they perform 



372 



MALARIA. 



the very journey, for which our cavaliers would take 
three days. 

At night, when the caravan was passing by I rejoined 
it, and we rapidly advanced to Beilom, where water, 
wine and air and all are good. We left Antioch upon 
our right and encamped beside a chrystal stream, desig- 
nated by the Turks Saouqsou, or cold water, and the 
water in reality is very gelid. After having passed the 
river Arefin, we arrived at a mountain on the 40th, to 
which celebrity was given by Simon Stylites. The moun- 
tain inheriting his name is entitled Giabal Scheyks Se- 
jnaon by the Turks, which means the mountain of the 
holy Simon. The companions of my journey, ignoring 
the origin of this appellative, in order to inform them I 
recounted the story of the saint. They listened to the 
story with delight, and when it was concluded, a thousand 
times they blessed me. You see very little learning go as 
extremely far in this country ; people are surprisingly 
ignorant on the subject of religion. I was informed by 
a Greek with a very serious visage, that a man after death 
might do penance for his sins. The proposition may ap- 
pear extravagant, but the sublime of folly was the proof. 
" When Judas had betrayed our Saviour, did he not pro- 
ceed to hang himself?" " Assuredly he did," was my 
reply. " And what w r as his reason do you think," ex- 
claimed the Greek, <k was it not with the certainty of 
meeting our Redeemer descending into limbo, and elicit- 
ing remission, and was it not in order to be there before 
him that he made so much haste in the commission of the 
suicide, being firmly convinced, that in this case he should 
go with him to glory with the saints ? But you are only 
half informed yet," continued the Greek, " for the branch 
of the tree on which the traitor hung, bending with his 



THE GREEK. 



373 



body at our Saviour's will, Judas touched the earth, and 
his life was not extinguished till our Saviour's resurrec- 
tion, when suddenly replete with strength and vigour, the 
branch resumed its original position, which speedily hung 
him to his heart's content." You did not anticipate such 
a termination ! As for me I had not a syllable to say, 
but I laughed I assure you, till my sides were sore. 

Permit me to return to St. Simon Styiites. The place 
which the saint selected, is really like a furnace in the 
summer season. The skin was removed from my visage 
while only passing over it, the heat was so excessive. 
"While cold, frost, wind, and snow prevail in ail their hor- 
rors through the winter, yet in this place the saint spent 
four-and-twenty years on the summit of a column of so 
small extent that he never could extend himself upon it. 
Fasting for the whole year round, and never eating any- 
thing in lent ; he made a thousand inclinations daily to 
adore the Creator of the universe. That hundreds were 
converted by the saint should elicit no astonishment. He 
who from the summit of a pulpit such as this, should announce 
that the world was delusion, and that heaven is our only 
home, coidd not fail to be believed. 

From this celebrated mountain we descended into vast 
and fertile fields, which led us to Aleppo on the thirty- 
fifth. It i> from thence that I have the honor of assuring 
you, with profound respect, &c. 



the T.yu. 



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